Macomb Medical Campus Delivers Eye-Catching Directory

Lost Patients Create “Eye” Strain

An interview with Property Manager Jill Long, Liberty Property and Asset Management, Manager of the Macomb Medical Campus

I manage 17900 23 Mile Road in Macomb, Michigan. It’s a dual facility which has two owners with a shared hallway. Ascension St. John Hospital Health Center owns one side of the property, and private owners operate the other side. Tenants include many Ascension doctors, an eye care center and an urgent care facility that is open 7 days a week.

Before I chose the TouchSource directory, visitors and patients would enter the building and not know where to go. The property had a slat directory near the elevators, but it wasn’t immediately visible to patients and it didn’t say that it was a directory.

So instead of using it, 50 to 60 visitors a day went into the ground floor eye doctor’s office to ask for directions to the MRI unit, their doctor’s office or urgent care. It’s a busy optical practice, so it was a major inconvenience for their staff. It also delayed patients on the way to their appointments.

To address the issue with patient wayfinding on the property, tenants were putting paper notices on the wall between the elevators. But this damaged the veneer when people pulled their flyers down. It looked terrible. The cost to repair the wall veneer was extremely expensive. The building put up poster board between the elevators to cover the damage. But it looked unprofessional and didn’t fit the character of the building or the quality that our owners wanted. It was simply time for a change.

From Eye Strain to an Eye-Catching Directory with Easy Wayfinding

To address the strain placed on our eye doctor’s office and patients, we selected a large, eye-catching 75-inch TouchSource Wall Display that you can see from everywhere. You just can’t miss it. Content is organized by doctor, practice and location. We also added a newsfeed at the bottom of the directory—which is key at this location where people wait for the elevators.

Now, visitors easily spot the directory as they come into the building and quickly find what they need. Once they locate their destination, they get there smoothly. As a result, we’ve successfully decreased stop-ins for directions at the Eye Care practice. Everyone is pleased with the functionality, modern design and day-to-day impact of our TouchSource directory.

As a busy property manager, I also find it easy to make updates and changes to the directory from my computer. The changes update within 24 hours instead of weeks. Before, we’d have to order slat listings and wait. It was more expensive and created delays.

Last, our TouchSource Directory has reduced the expense to our owners when welcoming new tenants. Plus, the TouchSource directory looks modern and is very professional. It’s what our owners, tenants and visitors expect to see when they visit our location for medical services.

What’s Next?

In the future, we’re working to solve for another need that we have. Our Urgent Care service is located in a difficult-to-find spot on our large campus. After hours, patients need to quickly get medical attention but there’s no one to ask and stopping at the directory may increase their distress. So, we’re working with TouchSource to display time-specific, highly visual announcements for evening and weekend hours to direct visitors to Urgent Care. The display is so large, that this will aid rushed visitors with the quick, at-a-glance information. We also plan to put up building notices such as when there’s building construction or vacancies. We’ll be showcasing floor plans and broker information for open rental units.

Why TouchSource?

We chose to go with TouchSource because we’ve got a TouchSource Directory installed at a different location, and it got great reception. It made a big difference at that property. In that case, TouchSource replaced a clear acrylic directory on gray wallpaper. The old directory was practically invisible. Now, people can easily find services and information at that location as well.

Everyone at TouchSource has been wonderful. The team was very consultative in helping me to match a design to our needs. Online support has been great. I put in a work ticket and was told to expect a response within 24 hours. Instead, they solved my issue in 20 minutes. I recommend TouchSource to my peers when they’re looking for great digital signage solutions and a trusted business partner.