BayCare Launches Smart Phone App To Navigate Hospitals

CLEARWATER, FL -- By now, everyone is aware that smart phones can be used to order groceries, map out a trip and connect with old friends.

However, you might not know that you can use your smart phone to navigate BayCare hospitals.

BayCare has launched BayCare Compass to help patients and visitors find a destination in the hospital. BayCare Compass is an indoor mobile wayfinding app that provides "turn by turn" directions to publicly available locations.

"Our patients and visitors have told us they want better ways to navigate through our hospitals. BayCare Compass gives them the ability to find their way in our hospitals right in the palm of their hand," said Tim Thompson, senior vice president, information services and chief information officer, BayCare.

Using a smart phone or tablet and available for free download on the Apple App store or Google Play, BayCare Compass features:

• Detailed maps of publicly available hospital floors
• Directory of publicly available departments and clinics
• Real-time location
• Points of interest around the hospital
• Driving and parking directions

"With BayCare Compass we can engage patients and visitors before they ever leave home," said Thompson.

The app offers a parking planner and can provide the option to save the car's location. Upon arrival at a BayCare hospital campus, the app automatically populates with that specific location. A Spanish-language version is expected to be available in early 2019.

All hospital guest services staff are trained on BayCare Compass to assist patients or visitors and a desktop application gives users the opportunity to print out directions before leaving home.

BayCare Compass is powered by Connexient, whose MediNavTM solution has been deployed at major health systems across the country to provide indoor mapping, navigation and location-based services.

BayCare Compass is just one of a series of technology-based solutions BayCare is using to enhance care and improve access. The solutions include:

• HealthNav, a free mobile app that can help guide people with non-urgent conditions to convenient, quality medical services.
• eCare, an electronic patient monitoring system that uses remote computer monitoring technology to enhance the care of critically ill patients in the hospital intensive care unit (ICU.)
• BayCare Anywhere, a 24/7 non-emergency telemedicine service offering virtual doctor visits through secure, interactive video and audio communications on a smart phone, tablet or computer.
• Telemonitoring of patients in nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities.
• Tablet-based, video-enhanced care for BayCare HomeCare patients in their homes.

BayCare is a not-for-profit health care system that connects individuals and families to a wide range of services at 15 hospitals and hundreds of other locations throughout the Tampa Bay and west-central Florida regions.

Inpatient and outpatient services include acute care, primary care, imaging, laboratory, behavioral health, home care, and wellness.

Image via BayCare Health Systems

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