QEII Medical
Centre Perth

The Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre in Perth, Australia, is a complex multi-use campus with twenty thousand patients, visitors, staff and contractors moving through the site each day. It is an ever-changing environment with on-going construction of new medical facilities including a Children’s Hospital, Cancer Centre, Pathology Laboratories and many more.

Over time this resulted in a confusing and disjointed environment which was difficult at times for visitors to navigate to, and throughout the site, especially for the first time visitors, the elderly, the infirm or those in a state of bereavement.

Harkess-Ord was appointed to supply strategic wayfinding consultation, site survey, signage engineering design and implementation of a wayfinding system that would be easy to understand, especially in such high stress environments.

The goal was to develop a budget friendly concept with high impact. The system needed to be flexible, easily maintainable, while observing the wayfinding principles established through hierarchy of information, lines of sight and structured navigational pathways.

Surveys, interviews with stakeholders, and a wayfinding analysis of the campus revealed the most effective points of entry, the primary thoroughfares and the key wayfinding touchpoints.

The new signage system sought to structure the major pathways in and around the hospital and bring the important directional information into these pathways at the right point along a journey route. This also included standardizing the signage locations, positions and viewing distances in order to help with ongoing maintenance. In addition the wayfinding addressed the creation of cleaner hospital block identification and more prominent guidance for visitors to the major departments such as Reception, Emergency, Outpatients and Pathology.

Benefits Included:

Wayfinding strategy developed to cater for the various needs of all hospital stakeholders including patients, visitors, staff and construction personnel
Design and engineering of a flexible wayfinding solution suitable for adapting to an ever changing environment
Signage manufactured using high tech, high volume, low cost manufacturing techniques, providing superior product quality and maintainability
Ongoing system evaluation and adaption as the medical campus evolves with building developments