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Healing for hospital signs that don't work

Date:
May 17, 2010
Source:
University of Cincinnati
Summary:
A sign redesign project is seeking to produce healthier hospital signage that's easy to follow no matter your language or reading level.
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Hospitals are large, complex institutions housing innumerable units, sections and visitor destinations. And in the United States alone, diversity is increasing within most locales, making it difficult to comply with federal requirements for text signs in patients' languages. In addition, about half of all Americans -- approximately 90 million -- cannot read well enough to navigate a hospital's written signs.

These challenges have led to a new project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, called "Signs that Work."

It includes 28 signage symbols made by professional designers in 2006 and the new addition of 22 symbols by student designers from four universities.

Fifteen of those 22 new student designs were created by students at the University of Cincinnati's internationally ranked School of Design, part of UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). All the student designs were recently refined by international symbols expert and designer Mies Hora and are now being integrated into a system totaling 50 symbols.

Oscar Fernández , UC associate professor of design and leader of the UC portion of the project, will present on "Signs that Work"

June 2 at the annual national conference of the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) in Washington, D.C.

Overseeing the project in its entirety is Yolanda Partida, director of Hablamos Juntos (We Speak Together), based at UCSF Fresno Center for Medical Education & Research.

The project was developed in five phases:

  • Professional designers from the SEGD developed a core set of symbols to use on hospital signage anywhere. That resulted in a base set of 28 signage symbols currently in use at national test sites.
  • Student designers expanded the system with additional symbols. (This occurred in early 2009.)
  • The students' designs were tested with English and non-English speakers in three Midwestern cities. Ultimately, 22 student-designed symbols tested well enough to be integrated into the new signage system. (Testing took place in late 2009.)
  • The students' designs were refined in order to standardize them into the larger symbol system. (Spring 2010)
  • These students' designs will be integrated into the existing signage system over the summer of 2010 and tested at four national hospital sites beginning in August 2010.

Project leader Partida explained, "It's our plan that other hospitals will learn about the new symbols via the four test sites. Hospitals belong to a host of specialty and general associations, and these associations provide recognition for innovation, community engagement and health literacy projects."

She added, "The entire system of new health-care signage with symbols will be made available to any hospital or health-care setting wanting to implement them."

The 22 additional health signage symbols created by students will be integrated into the base system already being tested at

  • Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, Ga., the largest hospital in the state
  • International Community Health Services, Seattle, Wash.
  • The Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Mo.
  • Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, Providence, R.I.

George Smith, Grady architectural project manager, welcomes the new addition of symbols to the signage at Grady. He explained, "In using the original set of 28 SEGD symbols, we found some gaps -- areas we'd like to direct people to that we didn't have a symbol for. Burn unit would be one example of that. "

Overall, he said, signage symbols are the way of the future as part of a larger wayfinding approach that allows visitors and patients to have a sense of autonomy and control upon entering a health center.

Smith added, "We've identified 26 language groups that use our facility, which spans 22 stories and 12 wings. If we had to use text to communicate on our signs, we'd have run out of wall space long ago. In the long run, the use of signage symbols will save us money in terms of implementation and updates."


Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Cincinnati. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Cite This Page:

University of Cincinnati. "Healing for hospital signs that don't work." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 May 2010. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100517111919.htm>.
University of Cincinnati. (2010, May 17). Healing for hospital signs that don't work. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 19, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100517111919.htm
University of Cincinnati. "Healing for hospital signs that don't work." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100517111919.htm (accessed March 19, 2024).

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