Hospital TV systems are a growing trend in the medical industry. As the technology grows, more and more hospitals are turning to waiting room TV software and medical office signage to educate patients and engage with them more. Patient education and engagement is important to every hospital. Whether it’s posters, literature, or a medical display; a lot of time and effort is put into connecting with visitors and delivering health information to people in waiting.

But how effective are these techniques in the long run? The trick is finding the best medical TV software. TV packages for waiting rooms vary. If your goal is to educate patients, you’re going to need medical content; but it’s not that simple. A common mistake that hospitals make is having too much medical content. Keep reading and you’ll see why waiting room television should be balanced.

Hospital TV: Putting Something Great on the TV People will Enjoy

Wanting to educate your patients is a good thing, however it’s important not to over-expose them. Moderation is key. A waiting room TV that only shows medical content might be boring, or unsettling. However educational it might be; who wants to watch countless 3D models of a clogged arteries? Or see a graphic video of an eyeball getting scraped? No one – that’s who. Looping medical displays are bad for that reason; having that type of content is a great way to get patients to ignore what’s on the TV and look at their phones instead.

People are likely to look at the TV when there’s something fun or interesting on it. Providing a balance of educational medical content – mixed with fun and engaging videos is the way to go. Finding the right waiting room TV software which offers the best of both worlds is the next step.

IRTV: Engaging Waiting Room TV Software

TV for waiting rooms doesn’t have to be a complicated thing. It’s Relevant TV makes sure it’s not. It’s Relevant (Also known across the country as Rele.TV) is a custom TV network which provides hospitals and medical clinics with quality, family-friendly content. It’s waiting room television that you control. You pick what categories patients will see while they wait; which will play alongside any waiting room videos, medical-related content, or personal messaging you upload to the network.

IRTV is a tool which blends the educational videos you want patients to see, as well as the fun and engaging content they enjoy watching. When it comes to hospital TV and waiting room digital signage, It’s Relevant TV is all you need to create a signature waiting area environment for your visitors.

Hospital waiting rooms across the country utilize cable or DirecTV. The people in charge unfortunately don’t often realize how risky it is to use those services in their waiting areas. The best waiting rooms out there take full advantage of what a TV is: a tool to reach patients while they’re waiting. In an age of technology where TV digital signage, signage apps, and medical TV displays are growing in popularity, there’s never been a better time to explore waiting room entertainment ideas.

If you’re curious where to begin looking for the best waiting room software, start your search here.

REASON 1: Hospital Waiting Rooms with Cable & DirecTV are Missed Opportunities

Cable TV is great, at home; however the same can’t be said in a medical office waiting room. When you settle for cable or DirecTV, you’re putting something on the TV that has nothing to do with your hospital. The time patients spend looking at the TV is time you could have exposed them to your brand, lesser-known services, or any reasons for them to come back. With the right waiting room software, your lobby TV can become an effective tool for inexpensive marketing.

REASON 2: Cable & DirecTV Open the Doors for your Competitors

Whether it’s a local commercial advertising a competing hospital, a news story highlighting some great things another hospital did; or even a bad news story portraying your hospital in a bad light; cable and DirecTV aren’t safe solutions for waiting room TVs.

Digital waiting room displays eliminate the risk of competitor ads showing up on your TV. That is, unless you fall for a free medical TV service for your hospital waiting rooms; in which case you’re at risk for pharmaceutical ads taking away business that should be yours. Don’t be fooled by healthcare TV providers trying to offer you “free” medical office signage.

REASON 3: You don’t Control what’s on the TV with Cable & DirecTV

The idea of lacking control when it comes to anything is pretty serious. You wouldn’t want to lack control while driving, or with the staff you hire, so why wouldn’t you want to control what people are seeing on your TV?

A good waiting room opts for safe, family-friendly content on the TV. However, safe and family-friendly isn’t guaranteed with TV services like cable and DirecTV; which have no way of blocking graphic/inappropriate content. As a result, people can hold you and your facility accountable for things that are beyond your control. When shopping for the best TV service for your hospital waiting rooms, look for something that works for you, and keeps your patients happy.

IRTV for your Hospital Waiting Rooms

It’s Relevant TV is a waiting room TV platform designed with medical offices in mind. Combining the best aspects of television and digital signage; IRTV gives you control over what comes on your TV. With It’s Relevant, there’s no missed opportunity to reach your visitors; because your marketing ads play alongside the interesting, family-friendly content that comes with IRTV.

Don’t settle for a TV service that you don’t control, or one that invites competitor ads onto your screen. You can do better, and in this growing age of technology there is no reason to stick with an antiquated cable service.

Whether it’s your waiting room TVs, the TVs in your patient rooms, or even the ones in your nurses’ stations or employee lounges; TVs play a vital roll in your hospital. In fact, it’s hard to settle down anywhere in a hospital without seeing a TV from where you’re sitting. That’s why what goes on the TV is important. But before you throw any old thing on the screen, you should consider what the TV is for.

Waiting Room TVs vs Patient Room TVs

When deciding what to put on the TV, it’s important to recognize that the TVs in your patient rooms serve a different purpose than the TVs in your waiting rooms. Patient rooms are places where patients have a one-on-one experience with the TV. They can also be there for an extended period of time. That being said, it’s a no-brainer as to why cable is the preferred choice for patient rooms. The patient gets to control what’s on their TV. They are the primary audience of that television, and as such can choose the exact content they want to without upsetting anyone else.

Waiting room TVs are different. If you have a solution that works in your patient rooms, it’s likely not the best solution for your waiting rooms. The time spent waiting is usually less than in exam rooms, and the audience is different. The content on your TVs should reflect that.

Patients gathered in a waiting room aren’t there to watch TV like they would at home. They’re in a waiting room, waiting to be seen, or waiting for someone else to come back from treatment. Waiting room TVs are casual distractions to help pass the time. Patients neither have the time, nor the interest, to invest in shows or segments that run 30-60 minutes long. So why pay for something that people are ignoring? You can do better than cable, or a medical TV display for your waiting rooms.

IRTV: Better Waiting Room Television

It’s Relevant TV is television designed for waiting room settings. It’s short-form, family-friendly content is split into 40+ categories that you pick and choose from which people genuinely enjoy watching. Patients gathered in waiting rooms aren’t individually in control of the TV, or TVs there. The ability to have multiple programming types appearing on the screen, which helps the patients all find something they enjoy, and keeping the content a short, 2-3 minutes long is best as you can shift between many content types to please the greatest number of people.

So leave cable to the patient rooms, and explore how you can do better for your waiting room TVs with It’s Relevant TV.

Striving to modernize your hospital is an essential task, but it doesn’t have to be a difficult one. With a new age of technology that has given us countless innovative ways to improve our lives and businesses, figuring out where to begin may seem daunting; nevertheless, this article will explore the top 5 ways to bring your hospital into the 21st century.

Modernize your Hospital: Where to Begin?

Improving your hospital begins with improving patient experience, and patient experience begins in the waiting room. A comfortable, modern-style waiting room is the key to improving your hospital as a whole. The following 5 points will show you how you can achieve that goal:

5.) Forward Thinking:

Favoring progession, exploring innovative technologies, and investing in new ways of doing things is the first step towards bringing your hospital into the new age. First and foremost, it’s important to recognize that things change. Change can be difficult, but it’s a good thing. Keeping up with technology lets you keep up with your patients; by staying in the past, you’re disconnecting yourself from them. Do some research, explore your options, and see what’s out there!

4.) Communication & Productivity:

The ways in which we’re able to communicate with one another has evolved greatly over the years. When it comes to your hospital, improving the ways in which you’re able to communicate with patients, and staff, is a great step towards forward thinking.

In an evolving culture where emails are missed and ignored, hospitals are looking for new ways to communicate with their staff in places they’ll notice important messaging. At the same time, they’re exploring new ways to inform patients of important reminders, services they could be utilizing, and overall reasons to come back and improve their health and overall well-being. If you’re curious where to start, there’s no better way to get someone’s attention than the TV.

3.) Decour & Ambiance:

Never underestimate the power of interior decorating, because nothing leaves a lasting impression quite like a first impression. A few well-placed plants, some hanging portraits, and a TV, can make or break a waiting room. It’s all about atmosphere. Making sure there are decorative features to fill blank spaces, comfy chairs to sit in, no unsettling stains or holes in the wall, and something good on the TV; all of these are important factors to consider when modernizing your hospital.

2.) Patient Comfort:

Ensuring that patient comfort is up to par should come at no surprise, a good health center puts its patients first. Hearkening back to the idea that patient experience begins in the waiting room, it goes without saying that comfortability is closer to the top of the list.

The key is generating a positive experience that won’t leave patients feeling nervous, stressed out, or worse than they were when they arrived. There are many new and innovative ways to generate that kind of positive experience, but the most effective means is through your waiting room TV. The right TV service can make all the difference in the end. Finding one that works for you often means moving away from cable, boring slideshows, or unsettling medical content.

1.) Technology:

There’s no better way to modernize your hospital than modernizing your technology. This starts with the TVs in your waiting room. Not the TVs themselves, but what’s on them.

As many hospitals strive to keep up with patient demand, many are forgetting to bring their TVs the modern age – settling for an antiquated solution instead. Cable, and looping medical displays, are holding hospitals back when their TVs could be doing so much more for them and their patients. We’re no longer in an age where the only thing that can go on the TV is cable, and we’re well beyond needing to settle for cheap, all0medical-related content. Take some time to explore cable alternatives that are out there for hospitals to take advantage of, and see how you could improve your hospital.

Modernize your Hospital with It’s Relevant TV

Utilizing It’s Relevant TV is an easy step in the right direction to bring your hospital’s waiting room into the 21st century. A new and innovative approach to waiting room TVs, It’s Relevant provides hospitals with a custom TV network; one that you control. With content that is interesting, family-friendly, and spread across 40+ categories to pick and choose from – that generates a more welcoming environment, and gives patients a pleasant distraction as they wait for treatment.

It’s Relevant is forward thinking. It combines the best aspects of television and digital signage in order to deliver a final product which improves patient experience, and allows you to engage with them, and your staff, on levels otherwise impossible with cable TV, or medical TV displays. It’s also future-proof, because the service and technology evolves with the times.

Explore It’s Relevant TV, and see how it could transform your waiting room TVs.

Customer retention is a vital part of any thriving business, but getting people who visit your business to come back can be hard. The start to a good customer retention strategy is as simple as putting yourself in their shoes. What does a visitor experience when he or she enters your business? What strategies are at work to make a it more welcoming place? This article will delve into the top 3 things to consider when coming up with strategies to nail those return visits.

Customer Retention Strategy #1:
A Good First Impression

You can spend all the marketing dollars you want on strategies to try and get people in the door; none of it matters if the first thing they see when they get there is something that will send them running for the hills. Never underestimate the power of a first impression. The first things that a visitor experiences within the first few minutes of being in your business are critical. What they see, how they’re treated, and the general vibes of the place are all factors that help determine whether or not you can count on that person coming back. For a more in-depth look into the factors that make or break a first impression, check out this article: Top 5 Factors to Enhance Your Business Environment.

Customer Retention Strategy #2:
Social Media

In the age of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, any business that doesn’t have a presence on social media is at a disadvantage. Social media keeps you connected to your customers when they are outside of your walls.

Getting visitors to follow you on social media platforms is a task in and of itself, and depending on the kind of business you have, it can be that much more difficult to get people interested in following. So what’s the trick? First, people need to be reminded that you exist on social media. This can be accomplished by printing pleas for followership on cards, shirts, and various other promotional items; but does that really convince people to follow you? You need to do more than just remind visitors to follow you on social media. You have to give them a good reason to follow you.

In truth, a good reason can’t be printed on a flier and handed out – it needs to be experienced. Visitors will follow you on social media when you show them what they get out of following you. Whether that thing is funny pictures, posts about hobbies they share, or even specials that give them a reason to come back – it’s all possible through social media.

Customer Retention Strategy #3:
Signage

Customers come back if they have a reason to. It’s your job as a business owner to educate them on why they should return.

Literature, brochures, and other types of signage are some of the classic business strategies for customer retention. Customers come back if they have a reason to. For good reason; it’s an effort to get the brand out there, and it can spruce up an otherwise blank waiting area. But relying on things like posters, or promotional items like pens and T-shirts to promote your brand doesn’t cut it. Posters go unnoticed. People throw out literature. And promotional items take up a lot of valuable space. The right approach to signage is investing in something people will notice, something that is informative, and something that doesn’t clutter up your storage space.

All-In-One Customer Retention Strategy: It’s Relevant TV

It’s Relevant TV is a custom TV network that makes for a great first impression, helps generate followers on social media, and gets your brand noticed.

First time, and even returning visitors are entertained by the engaging, and informative content. The videos get people to look at the TV; at which point they notice your brand, your messaging, and anything you want them to see. Strangely enough, the messaging that went unnoticed on posters gets noticed the TV. It’s Relevant TV also integrates with your social media accounts. Visitors are able to see recent posts from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram directly on the TV in between content. This gives demonstrates the reasons for them to follow you, and then they do!

It’s Relevant TV is TV made for businesses and waiting areas. It’s affordable, customizable, easy-to-use, and improves visitor experience, and your bottom line. Visit: itsrelevant.com to explore a better alternative for your TV.

Everyone knows the phrase “You get what you pay for,” and nothing is more enticing than something free; especially when that “free thing” is a TV for your business. Trying to get the most while spending the least is a sound business tactic. It makes sense to think that spending $0 for a service that you want in your business is a win-win.

But what’s the catch?

This article tackles the top 5 issues that come with free TV services and the ways it impacts your practice. If you’re already aware of the risks and you’re looking for a better alternative for your TV, then check out a custom television service we recommend that’s made for medical practices.

1. Who’s Paying For Your Free TV?

Contrary to what Sam Cooke was singing about in the 1920’s, the best things in life aren’t free. If someone approaches your business offering you a free TV service, it isn’t out of the goodness of their heart. It’s about business. You might not be paying any money for the service, but it does come at a cost. If the service provided isn’t getting their money from you, they’re getting it from someone else. That someone else is the one who ends up having the most control over what’s on your TV.

Advertisers pay for the messaging, so most of the content is there to benefit them – you have a lack of control over what your patients are seeing. If you’re not paying for your TV in money, you’re paying for it in other ways. The prospect of a free TV can be enticing, but don’t fall for it. There are better alternatives out there.

2. Free TV = A Bad Patient Experience

In a hospital, clinic, or medical office, a medical TV service that costs very little, or nothing at all, might seem like a great idea because it’s health-related and compliments the medical setting. But how does it make patients feel? Visitors might be there for health-related reasons, but that doesn’t mean it’s the sort of thing they want to watch while they wait. Graphic cross-sections of the human body, gross videos about clogged hearts or debilitating diseases, or even pharmaceutical ads for pills patients can purchase – however informative or well-intended these pieces are, it can make patients anxious or lead to an overall bad experience. The visit starts in the waiting room and you owe it to your patients to put something on the TV they will enjoy.

3. Poor/Limited Content

The content that comes with free services are often outdated, uninteresting, unsettling, or of poor quality. The providers of your free service pay as little as they can to procure cheap content that they can play over and over again forever. In the end you’re left with the bottom of the barrel, or the least amount of effort your provider has to put forward in order to hold up their end of the bargain. Don’t settle for this kind of service.

4. Updating Content…

If you’ve ever used a free TV service in your business or clinic, you might have experienced the frustration of waiting for the system to update. If you haven’t, then based on the previous sentence you could probably guess that it can take a very long time. Sad but true; in most cases, providers of free medical TV services are busy serving the clients that pay them, a.k.a. pharmaceutical companies that are advertising through their platform. As a free user, you rank lower on their list of priorities, and therefore updating your individual TV is often something they’ll “get around to doing,”… eventually.

5. Stolen Potential

Free TV services rob the potential your TV has to improve your practice, patient experience, and your bottom line. When you settle for a free service  you’re sacrificing the most effective tool for communicating with your visitors. A free TV and several hours of dry, looping content isn’t worth the expense of your patients’ comfort. It also isn’t worth the lost potential that your own controlled TV network can provide you with. Don’t short-change yourself.

A Service That Works For You & Your Practice

Instead of settling for one of these “free” services, utilize It’s Relevant TV – and for a small monthly fee you’ll have access to interesting content visitors will enjoy. You’ll have control over what’s on your TV, and you’ll see a real return on your investment. With It’s Relevant you control what messages patients see; getting them to come back for other reasons, ultimately raising your per-patient-revenue. Outside companies shouldn’t be the ones getting the most out of your business. Schedule a call or demo with It’s Relevant TV to learn more: http://www.itsrelevant.com/medical.