The Jamestown Family Health Clinic in Sequim, Washington, has deployed a Visix AxisTV Signage Suite digital signage system to provide patients with consistent, real-time messaging on its services and protocols. The centrally managed system is a giant step up from its previous communications method, which relied on staff members manually posting written notes in the facility’s waiting room as time allowed.
Owned and operated by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, the Jamestown Family Health Clinic offers primary medical services to Tribal citizens and non-Tribal community members. The facility has 26 primary care providers and 18,000 active patients, making it one of the largest family practices on the Olympic Peninsula. With a staff of 125 employees, every team member performs a variety of different functions within a limited amount of time.
Shelly Tweter, executive assistant, communications and medical staff services, became such an example when recently named the clinic’s digital signage administrator. “This was one reason leadership sought a signage solution that would enable me and my colleagues to deliver accurate, timely information to patients in the most efficient way possible,” said Tweter.
Jamestown signed up for Visix’s AxisTV Signage Suite Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) package, a new subscription-based version of Visix’s flagship digital signage software. The solution includes an AxisTV Manage CMS (Content Management System); the AxisTV Design desktop design app; and AxisTV Engage media player software. The package also includes a choice of Visix Nano or HDn media players. Jamestown selected the ultra-compact Nano players, which support both wired and wireless networking, and are ideal for less video-intensive applications. Cloud hosting, software support and maintenance, online support, and hardware replacement for the life of the subscription are also included.
To optimize sightlines for all patients, the clinic installed two pairs of 50-inch video screens positioned on opposite sides of the large lobby area. Each display shows the latest messaging on how to obtain Covid vaccinations and flu shots, a listing of local facilities (including Jamestown) that perform x-rays and where to pick up lab results.
Tweter says that the ease of updating messaging in real time has become increasingly important considering the pandemic when regulations and protocols change on a near-daily basis. “One day we may offer boosters to Jamestown Family Health Clinic patients exclusively, and the next we may have the capacity to open that up to everyone in the community,” she said. “As soon as that decision is made, I can go into the system and make the necessary change within a matter of minutes.”
Jamestown also signed up for Visix’s Custom Creative Digital Signage Services, which provides customized screen layouts and templates that incorporate the clinic’s visual marketing materials such as logo, branding colors, fonts and graphics.
The Visix HaaS offering brings an important advantage to customers like Jamestown Family Health Clinic: A transition to OPEX spending rather than investing a large capital outlay in a new, unfamiliar technology. Tweter, who has no prior digital signage experience, also notes the convenience of receiving help from Visix whenever she needs it. “One of the reasons we went with the subscription-based model was for the continued support, and that support has been excellent,” she said.
While Jamestown’s initial deployment is patient-focused, Tweter notes that the facility will deploy employee-facing displays in the break room and staff areas for corporate communications. The clinic is also in the process of opening an opioid treatment facility across town, and Tweter confirms this location will adopt Visix EPS Electronic Paper Room Signs to share scheduling information with patients.
“Being able to quickly update information our patients need has made the staff’s job easier, and helped us deliver a better, more transparent experience to the people in our care,” Tweter said. “And visually it’s much cleaner and more reassuring than the paper signs we were taping to the wall.”