WAYFINDING


a harmful delay in the person getting the care they need. Have you identified and assessed wayfinding information along these potential emergency routes and destinations at your sites? Carrying out Wayfinding Risk Audits and developing Lost Person Protocols for each of your sites will help avoid future tragedies.


How Wayfinding Risk Audits identify safety issues Wayfinding audits to identify safety risks are not a ‘nice to have’ or a ‘will do later’ task – they are essential for keeping people safe and for risk reduction at your sites. Audits should: n Identify public routes with access to restricted, rarely used areas, stairwells, exits, and rooms where someone could go missing.


n Map high-risk junctions, decision points, and vertical circulation routes.


n Walk the routes and identify potential high-risk decision points.


n Walk the routes with first-time visitors, and people living with cognitive, sensory, or physical impairments. Ask if they are confused by any of the safety information or environmental features at the high-risk locations on the route.


n Listen to staff interactions along the routes – are staff able to give directions that avoid people accessing high-risk areas?


n Repeat audits at different times of the day. n Create a prioritised Risk Reduction Action Plan based on the audit findings.


n Install new wayfinding information, environmental safety features, or physical barriers where necessary.


Identifying routes that connect linked services – such as maternity wards to neonatal units – is important. Risk assessing the potential for people to move from public to restricted areas is crucial. Do you need to install barriers and other environmental interventions, or new safety and warning signs, to prevent accidental access into rarely used stairwells? Wayfinding failure is an underestimated safety risk. Wayfinding systems should be treated as a safety-critical operational issue, not a cosmetic enhancement project.


Why hospital wayfinding is so difficult Sites with multiple buildings linked by corridors and a maze of external pathways and internal corridors is common. People inevitably encounter wayfinding problems. Creating a mental map of complex sites is hard, especially when departments relocate, services merge, old buildings are demolished, and new ones added. Your mind maps (and your site maps) change frequently. Redrawing your maps is often challenging but it is essential for wayfinding success. Site changes in today’s NHS hospitals cause:


n Outdated signs after relocations, and when new buildings open.


n Inconsistent naming conventions across Trust sites. n Lack of ownership for planning, funding, and updating wayfinding systems.


n Out-of-date verbal directions being given by staff. n Limited budget for new wayfinding strategies and system maintenance.


Three factors influence wayfinding success – people, information, and environments Wayfinding systems are complex, hybrid systems. Success is affected by the people you train, the information you


Above: An example of a ‘bad’ hospital sign.


Left: Paper signs.


provide, and the environments you create, including: n People giving directions – in person, over the phone or in writing – and a person’s individual ability to navigate and move around your site.


n Information at your site – signs, maps, leaflets, and diagrams, and in digital formats – appointment letters, texts, emails, and websites.


n Environmental interventions – canopies at external entrances, lifts and staircases that are visible from the approach, lighting at reception desks, flooring that guides people along key routes and describable landmarks located at key decision points.


These three inter-related, interconnected factors make hospital wayfinding systems difficult to manage, with different directorates, teams, and professionals often working in silos to design and implement each factor.


Effective wayfinding systems involves many directorates and teams The three biggest barriers to having a consistent, clear hospital wayfinding systems are: n A lack of ownership. n A lack of allocated funding. n A lack of central management.


A small number of Trusts have appointed a Wayfinding Manager or Champion. A few have set up cross- directorate Wayfinding Working Groups. Some work with


October 2026 Health Estate Journal 41


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