Staff Communication System
Customer: |
Erie County Medical Center
Buffalo, New York
|
 |
|
Goal: |
Communicate Human Resource and Conference and Event Messaging to Staff |
Situation
Erie County Medical Center (ECMC), located in Buffalo, NY, is a regional center for trauma, burn,
rehabilitation and cardiac care, and is also a major teaching facility for the University at Buffalo.
The primary medical center has 550 inpatient beds and 156 skilled nursing beds and there are 40
outpatient specialty care clinics throughout western New York. The primary medical center has a
large staff of doctors and nurses and the executive team was interested in improving communication
to help build greater awareness of scheduling changes, HR reminders and medical conferences. It
was determined that digital signage technology, and its ability to get noticed, was an effective
means of communicating with their large, mobile staff.
Solution
ECMC studied their communication needs and decided one channel of content was required at their
primary center, although, due to the physical size of the facility a number of displays would be
required at strategic locations where the staff would notice them. This requirement meant only one
media player PC had to be utilized because the output signal could be split to various displays.
One SceneStudio media player was placed in the IT closet and Extron video distribution equipment
using Cat 5e cable was employed to carry the video and audio signal at distances approaching 800
feet.
The team at ECMC determined the best locations to deploy output displays was the primary staff
entrance, staff locker rooms and a cafeteria. A LG 50” display was placed at the entrance and
three of them in the cafeteria. In each locker room a Viewsonic 26” display was used.
ECMC realized that any new communication tool could loose its novelty over time so they took the
important step to alternate weather, sports and news feeds from AccuWeather.com with their core
messages. The AccuWeather.com brand is trusted and recognizable and the constantly changing
nature of the content helps drive the staff’s attention to the displays. ECMC also had the
foresight to add images from company events from time-to-time, which is entertaining content the
staff wants to see while building bonds between the staff.
Benefits
ECMC has improved the ability to get important messages noticed by their large, mobile staff of
doctors and nurses. The messages being communicated are important because the various events and
conferences that are announced provide the ability to educate the staff, helping ECMC to
continually deliver excellence in patient care and customer service.