The Digital Signage Expert

Customer Overview
Heritage Valley Health System provides health care to residents of southwestern Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and West Virginia. With a history that goes back to 1894, the current healthcare system is comprised of two hospitals — Heritage Valley Beaver and Heritage Valley Sewickley — as well as community satellite offices and physician offices.

Project Summary
Although Heritage Valley strives to be uniquely connected to its community, with a large employee base of over 4,300 and two main hospitals 17 miles apart, it was often difficult to make sure everyone received information in a timely manner.

Carlotta Morgan, interactive media coordinator for the health system, remembers having to go to one location to deliver communication and then having to travel to the other location to do the same thing. “Of course,” she adds, “nobody gets the information at the same time.”

Having a central spot for displaying information would help, the hospital administrators decided. Initially, they tried using an LED display in the Sewickley hospital lobby to provide information, but the static display didn’t meet their needs. Heritage Valley wanted a system that could be expanded and used for two audiences: consumers and employees. Mrs. Morgan also wanted to be able to create a more dynamic display.

At first, Heritage Valley evaluated LCD digital displays that could be completely customized. They also considered buying a more encompassing subscription program, but found that those options often had features that weren’t needed and that were to expensive.

The Solution
Eventually, Heritage Valley selected Rise Display. The digital signs allow them to display live data, text, photos, animations, TV programs and videos from a computer and view it on the display screen.

“We used it out of the box,” Mrs. Morgan says. “Rise customized a template that met our branding standards, but other than that, it’s an out of the box solution.”

Heritage Valley bought four LCD displays to use in the main lobbies and cafeterias of the two hospitals. Since that initial investment three years ago, they have purchased four more units. In addition to installing one more display at each hospital, the have put two in their walk-in clinics, located in area Walmart stores.

As with any technological product, parts occasionally wear out. When that happened, Mrs. Morgan was extremely impressed with the customer service she received from Rise.
“They drop-shipped me the unit and I had it the next day. They were there to help me with all the configurations,” Mrs. Morgan recalls. She adds: “I love Rise.”

Heritage Valley anticipates using the Rise displays as an integral part of the hospital’s communication tools. Even now, Mrs. Morgan posts teasers on the displays directing viewers to information available on the hospital website. She looks forward to using the displays to provide real- time wait times at the various locations so patients can determine where they may receive care faster.

“That’s the ease of this,” she says. “Getting (information) down quickly and getting it up quickly.”