How many wayfinding kiosks does a hospital need?

Start with the decision points rather than a number: the main entrance, each large waiting area that sends patients on elsewhere, and the main lift lobbies. A pilot can start with two or three kiosks plus QR hand-off to phones, then add screens where the statistics show people searching most.

Does hospital wayfinding store patient data?

It should not need to. Visitors using a kiosk do not have to sign in, and a good system starts a fresh anonymous session for each visitor. In the DigiMaps hospital pack, typed search text is dropped before storage, and staff-only rooms never appear on public screens.

Can hospital wayfinding integrate with our HIS or EHR?

Ask each vendor exactly what they mean by integration. Some US vendors integrate with Epic MyChart. DigiMaps does not integrate with an EHR; it offers deep links to a destination, which an appointment message can carry, and a documented API.

Can the system run entirely inside the hospital network?

Some can. DigiMaps can run on one server on the hospital network, including sites with no internet connection, with no outbound calls by default and offline updates. Kiosks keep working from their cached map if the network drops.

Do we need beacons for a hospital?

Not to start. Kiosks know where they stand, so routes begin there and move to phones by QR code. A moving blue dot needs beacons or another positioning provider, a survey and, on iPhone, a native app, so pilot it in one zone before committing a whole building.

Can wayfinding screens guide people during an evacuation?

They can help, as long as nobody treats them as the evacuation system. In DigiMaps, one action puts an emergency message on every screen in every venue language, with a route to the nearest reachable exit where approved exit data exists. It supplements, never replaces, your approved signage and procedures.

Planning hospital wayfinding in India and the GCC

Start from the visit, not the floor plan

A hospital floor plan is drawn for the people who built it. Patients see the building as a sequence of questions, usually asked in a hurry and often on someone else’s behalf. Write that sequence down for your three busiest kinds of visit before you look at any software.

Outpatients entrance G

“Which gate do I use for OPD?”

A map link in the appointment SMS or WhatsApp message that opens before arrival, with car park levels if visitors park on site.
Main entrance kiosk G

“Where do I register?”

A kiosk facing the door, searchable by department, clinic or room number, in the languages your patients read.
Registration and billing G

“Which counter is mine?”

Counters as separate searchable places, and notices that can go live when a counter moves or closes.
Cardiology OPD L2

“Is there a lift? My father uses a wheelchair.”

A step-free route that never uses stairs, sent to the phone by QR code so the family can follow it.
Sample collection L1

“Now where do I give the blood sample?”

A second route from wherever they are now, and opening hours checked against when they will arrive.
Pharmacy, then exit G

“Where do I collect medicines, and how do I get out?”

A stop on the way out, with restrooms or the prayer room on the route if they ask for them.

One outpatient visit at a fictional hospital, Wayvale General. Each stop pairs a question help desks hear every day with what the software has to do at that point.

Two things stand out in almost every list like this. Most questions are asked at a small number of places, and most visits involve more than one destination. Both shape what you buy: kiosks at those places, and routes that can start again from wherever the patient is now.

What public hospitals in India now ask for

In September 2025, AIIMS New Delhi launched AIIMS Disha, an app for finding the way inside the hospital. Press coverage describes Bluetooth beacons, 2D floor maps, routes for wheelchair users, voice and visual directions in several languages, offline use, search for doctors, labs, pharmacies and billing counters, and kiosks inside the hospital (The Week, via PTI, checked 24 October 2026).

Earlier reporting on the plan behind it is just as useful to anyone writing requirements (Digital Health News, checked 24 October 2026):

What AIIMS Delhi reportedly asked for	What to check in any vendor
Hindi and several other Indian languages	Interface text, map fonts and on-screen keyboards in each script, not only translated place names
Offline directions	What a kiosk and a phone each do when the network drops
Data stored on Indian servers	Where the server is, in the contract, or whether it can run on your own network
A simple, accessible design	Step-free routes, large text, high contrast and spoken directions
Delivery by a government organisation or PSU with indoor-navigation experience	Whether the vendor works through partners and system integrators

Private hospital groups are not bound by these choices, but the “What to check” column works as a checklist for any hospital in India.

Put kiosks where the questions are asked

A kiosk is most useful at a decision point: a place where a visitor has to choose a direction and would otherwise ask someone. In a typical outpatient building that means the main entrance, the waiting areas that send people on to tests, and the lift lobbies.

1 Main entrance, facing the doors. The first question of the visit is asked here, before anyone reaches the desk.
2 Outpatients waiting area. Patients go on from here to tests, the pharmacy and billing, so it is the second busiest start point.
3 Lift lobby. Routes to upper floors split here, and step-free routes start from the lift.

Sheet HG-02

Drawing Wayvale General Hospital · kiosk positions

Levels G

Illustrative positions on a fictional hospital. Each kiosk’s position and facing direction are recorded once, so its “You are here” is exact.

Record each kiosk’s position and the way it faces, because “turn left” only works if the map knows which way the visitor is looking. Leave enough clear floor in front for a wheelchair, and check there is power and a data point before the kiosk is ordered. Keep kiosks out of clinical corridors: they draw people into places you want kept clear.

Make step-free routes a rule

In a hospital, many visitors cannot use stairs: wheelchair users, patients on crutches, people pushing a relative, parents with prams. A step-free route has to be a rule the router cannot break, not a preference it weighs against distance.

When you test vendors, ask for a route between two floors with step-free switched on, then close the lift it used. A good system either finds another lift or says plainly that no step-free route exists. It should never quietly send the visitor to the stairs.

Use the accessibility standard your building already follows to set the rest: text size, contrast, reach heights for kiosk controls. In India that is likely to be the Harmonised Guidelines and Standards for Universal Accessibility in India 2021 from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; in Dubai, the Dubai Universal Design Code. A vendor should tell you which settings support those standards, not claim to meet them on your behalf. For what DigiMaps does here, from six routing profiles to a kiosk reach mode, see accessible wayfinding in DigiMaps.

Name departments the way patients say them

Patients rarely type the official department name. Collect the words your help desk actually hears and make sure each one leads somewhere useful.

What a patient types	Where it should lead
x-ray, scan, MRI	Radiology, or the right imaging room
OPD	The outpatient department, or the clinic list
blood test	Sample collection or the laboratory
chemist, medicines	The pharmacy that serves outpatients
loo, toilet, حمام	The nearest restrooms
B-1.04, b104	The room with that number, typed any way

Industry packs can supply many of these words. DigiMaps ships a hospital pack with everyday synonyms in English and Arabic, but your own help-desk list will always be better.

Plan languages by script

A language is not ready just because the place names are translated. Each script needs interface text, a map font and an on-screen keyboard, and someone on your side has to approve the wording. In the GCC, hospitals often serve workforce populations as well as citizens, which adds languages such as Urdu, Hindi, Malayalam and Tagalog.

Language	Script	What to check	DigiMaps today
English	Latin	Plain wording on signs and screens	Complete
Arabic	Arabic, right to left	Full right-to-left layout and Arabic search spellings	Interface and pack wording ready for your team to approve; bundled font; keyboard
Hindi	Devanagari	Keyboard, map font, interface text	Keyboard ready; interface text is a draft your team completes; you supply the font
Urdu	Arabic script, right to left	Right-to-left layout, keyboard, how the font renders Urdu	Keyboard and right-to-left layout; your team translates the interface text
Malayalam	Malayalam	Keyboard and font, often missing in kiosk software	No on-screen keyboard layout yet; you supply the font
Tagalog	Latin	Translation and approval only	Latin keyboard and font; your team translates

Spoken directions depend on the voices installed on each kiosk, so test them in every language on the actual hardware.

Keep private things private

Kiosks stand in waiting areas and are used by patients, so privacy questions come up in the first meeting with IT. Ask every vendor the same five questions.

Question	Why it matters in a hospital	How DigiMaps answers
Do visitors sign in?	Nobody should give their name to find the pharmacy	No accounts on kiosks; a fresh anonymous session after 60 seconds idle, by default
Is typed search text stored?	People type symptoms and names	The hospital pack drops typed search text before storage
Can staff-only rooms reach a public screen?	Stores, theatres and staff corridors must stay off public maps	They are removed on the server from search, directory, routes, feeds and QR links
What do the statistics show?	Small counts can point to one person	Personal details scrubbed; groups smaller than 5 hidden; 395-day retention by default, configurable
Where is the data held?	Hospital IT policy and national data-protection law	On your own server if you need it, or a cloud region agreed in the contract

None of this replaces your own legal review under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act or the data-protection laws in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. For UAE buyers, we can share a UAE PDPL, Dubai ISR and Universal Design Code control mapping for your legal and information-security review.

Cloud or your own server

Many public hospitals and some private groups require visitor-facing systems to run inside the hospital network. Settle this before the shortlist, and ask every vendor in writing whether they offer an on-premises option and what it leaves out. Hospital mode in DigiMaps keeps clinical and staff-only areas off public screens and can run entirely on your own network, including sites with no internet connection: see DigiMaps on your own server.

Closures and emergencies

Lifts break, restrooms close for cleaning and departments move for refurbishment. Ask how a closure reaches every screen, whether active routes change, and whether visitors are told why. For emergencies, digital screens can help people find the nearest open exit, but only with approved exit data, and only as a supplement to alarms, signs and staff. If a vendor calls its product an evacuation system, ask which authority approved it for that use.

Choosing a system

Four questions sort the market quickly. They are deliberately fair: the first one points many US hospitals away from us.

Q1
Do most patients use the hospital’s Epic MyChart app, and do you want navigation inside it?

Yes
Shortlist mobile wayfinding vendors that integrate with MyChart. That is mainly a US market; DigiMaps offers deep links and an API, not an EHR integration.
Q2
Do most visitors arrive at a main entrance and ask at the desk?

Yes
Lead with kiosks that know where they stand, plus QR hand-off to phones. Beacons can come later, or not at all.
Q3
Must visitor data stay on the hospital network?

Yes
Shortlist only vendors with an on-premises option, and ask for the deployment diagram and every outbound connection.
Q4
Do you need two or more languages, one of them right to left?

Yes
Test search and step-by-step directions in each script during the demo, on your own department names.

Answer the questions in order. If question 1 is a yes, DigiMaps is probably not your first call. A yes to two or more of questions 2 to 4 describes the hospitals we built DigiMaps for.

Buying in India and the GCC

Market	How hospitals usually buy	Prepare before the first meeting
India, public hospitals	Tenders, often delivered through a PSU or system integrator	The tender’s accessibility standard, hosting rule and language list
India, private groups	Direct purchase, often with the signage or IT contractor	DWG drawings, a list of departments and screen locations
UAE and Saudi Arabia	Tenders and partner-led delivery, Arabic first	Arabic names for every department, data-location requirement, security questionnaire

Whatever the route, the same documents make quotes comparable: floor plans for one building, the list of places patients search for in each language, the kiosk and screen locations, your IT security questionnaire, and the approved emergency plan if you want exit guidance. If you are writing a formal tender, start from our vendor-neutral tender specification template. DigiSigns is based in New Delhi and works through partners and system integrators in India and the GCC. Our country notes on indoor wayfinding in India, the UAE and Saudi Arabia cover hosting, languages and procurement in each market.