County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust selects Hibox Smartroom for Digital Signage

Improves efficiency and reduces management through single solution

Cambridge, UK, 6th of July, 2021 - County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has chosen Smartroom Health, an advanced multiscreen content management system by Hibox Systems, to provide clear and reliable digital signage in three of its hospitals – Darlington Memorial Hospital, University Hospital of North Durham and Bishop Auckland Hospital. This progressive system also enables patient TV entertainment services to be managed from the same server, leading to greater operational efficiencies and time savings compared to multi-server systems.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest integrated healthcare providers in England. Its 7,500 staff serve a population of around 650,000. The Smartroom Health solution by Hibox was seen to fit seamlessly into the hospital’s business systems, and furthers the Trust’s mission to provide the safest, most compassionate and joined-up care for the populations it serves.

Commenting on the implementation, Nigel Hauxwell, IT manager at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, said, “With Smartroom Health, our hospitals can create an exceptional patient experience by providing visual information and content on more than 40 digital signage screens and door displays. The installation went smoothly and we can now control display screens from just one server, getting maximum value from our IT budget.

Screens in public areas are now used to provide clear real-time communications to patients, visitors and staff, including general information, waiting times, news, general messages and café menus. This is displayed on the large digital signage screens while smaller doorway displays outside meeting rooms are used to show current and upcoming reservations. In addition to patient-facing displays, the Trust also utilises Smartroom Health's built-in tools for room allocation.

“We discovered the need for more efficient and reliable signage at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust’s hospitals only last summer," said Staffan Granholm, CEO, Hibox Systems. “We were delighted to be able to make an agreement and install our Smartroom system in just a few months, and that Smartroom Health lives up to the visions and expectations of the Trust, delivering an engaging experience to patients and staff. We are proud of our first installation for the NHS, and we are confident this will be followed by many more, as it has in the Nordics where Smartroom Health is becoming the de facto standard for large hospitals.”

Project management in the UK was performed by Lorna Garrett, Managing Director of Zest Technologies (formerly of Garland Partners). “Working with the Trust’s IT and Communications teams to fully understand their signage needs and the outcomes they wanted for user engagement, ongoing system management and budget, I was able to highly recommend the Hibox digital signage solution,” says Lorna. “At Zest, as experts in IPTV and digital solutions, we ensure the solutions we offer will be reliable and secure, are cost effective and are easy to manage.”