Kentucky Hospital Incorporates Location Technology

By Eric Althoff

PIKEVILLE, Ky.Hospitals and other healthcare facilities located in rural areas often face the challenge of being difficult to locate, which can be especially aggravating under emergency circumstances—and then, upon arrival, the mission to locate the right hospital department can be as equally daunting.  Accordingly, the Pikeville Medical Center has taken a technological step forward to become the first hospital in Kentucky to offer blue dot navigation.

“Blue dot” is a positioning technology that shows one’s location as a dot on an interactive screen or GPS.  However, the issue for healthcare is that large indoor facilities such as hospitals can be as difficult to navigate as road systems, and thus blue dot assists a patient to locate a specific department or emergency department within the hospital itself. 

At Pikeville, this point-to-point navigation will be accomplished via MediNav, a service powered by Connexient.  This way, someone entering the Pikeville Medical Center will be able to easily locate a care office and save their parking location for later referral.

Al Greenfield, director of marketing at Pikeville, said that the medical facility is proud to pair with Connexient as a method to ease navigation within the building. 

“This digital wayfinding technology will help our patients and guests experience a well orchestrated visit from home to appointment,” Greenfield said in a statement, adding that MediNav will come online at Pikeville in the fourth quarter of 2019.

“Pikeville’s commitment to patient care is unparalleled,” added Mark Green, Connexient CEO and co-founder.  “Their mission is to provide world-class quality healthcare in a Christian environment, and MediNav will help them deliver on that mission.”

Pikeville Medical Center is the largest hospital in Southeastern Kentucky, encompassing 1.6 million square feet of space.