Nobody wants to get lost in a hospital. Now the way, the hours and the rules are on their own phone.
A hospital is a building people visit when they would rather not: clinics on different floors, a laboratory, radiology, registration, visiting hours, rules for companions, the car park. Patients and visitors ask the same questions at every desk and in every corridor, often in a language the staff do not speak. Today the answers sit on signs, at a busy information desk and with staff who have patients waiting. ToRun's AI assistant brings them to the visitor's own phone, starting from the spot where they are standing.
Why a hospital needs it more than most buildings
Most patients come only a few times a year. Floors, wings and clinic names are new to them every time, and a sign cannot answer a question.
Patients from abroad, visitors from out of town, elderly companions. They can type or speak, and the answer comes back in the language of the question.
Every “where is radiology?” at the nurses' station is time taken from care. Questions like that are answered at the spot where they come up.
Visiting hours, companion rules, parking, a clinic that moved floors. When the document is updated, the answer changes with it; a printed sign stays as it is.
From the car park to the clinic door
The code at the main entrance and the code in the car park are different codes, so the assistant knows where the person is standing. The answers come from the clinic list, floor information, visiting rules and service information the hospital uploads.
Illustrative examples. Answers are generated from the information the venue uploads; when the documents have no answer, the assistant says so and the question goes to the report.
Four sides of the hospital, four different gains
The same setup gives each side something different: the patient finds the way, the information desk gets time back, the technical team hears about a fault from the person who saw it, and management sees where people get lost.
Directions from the spot where they stand, the hours and the rules, in their own language, typed or spoken. No account, no name, no patient number.
Floors, clinics, hours and rules are answered at the spot. The desk keeps what only people can do: reassuring someone, an exception, a patient who needs to be accompanied.
“The lift in block C has stopped” or “the accessible restroom on the 2nd floor is locked” reaches the panel with its spot and time, and by e-mail. If nobody picks it up within the set time, it moves up to the next person in charge.
Which spots collect the most questions, at which hours and in which languages, and what people looked for and did not find. Input for signs, staffing and interpreter planning.
At every point where someone stops to ask
A print-ready poster comes out of the system for each spot; the codes can also be printed on existing signs and directory boards.
After a month, you know where people get lost
The report is made of questions: what was asked, at which spot, when, in which language, and whether it was found.
Illustrative report. The real figures come from your own visitors' questions.
The spots where people ask the way most are where a sign is missing or unclear, and the asked-but-not-found list says what they wanted. It downloads as Excel or CSV.
The spread across hours, spots and languages shows where guides and interpreters are needed, and when.
What patients and visitors ask is a record of what confused them: input for the next patient leaflet, the website and the signs.
How it fits the hospital
You upload the clinic list, floor and wing information, visiting and companion rules, parking and services, as Word, PDF, Excel or PowerPoint; no special format. Your staff mark the spots and places on the floor plan, and a print-ready poster comes out for each spot. The page goes live with the hospital's name, logo and color.
Patients and visitors scan, ask and read. When a clinic moves or visiting hours change, the document is updated and the answers follow. Fault reports reach the panel and e-mail straight away.
The demand report is in the panel, and the asked-but-not-found list downloads as Excel or CSV: input for signs, staffing and patient information. The spots and codes stay where they are; what changes is the content you upload.
Three principles
No tenant or exhibitor can pay to be put first; the order of an answer cannot be bought.
The assistant is set up to answer only from the documents the venue uploads. When there is no answer, it says so, and the question goes to the asked-but-not-found list.
No account, no form, no name or phone number. The visitor scans the code and asks.
We collect questions, not people
The record is made of the question: what was asked, at which spot, when, in which language, and whether an answer was found. The venue sees what its visitors are looking for without knowing who they are.
Frequently asked
Will it answer medical questions?
It is set up to answer questions about the building and its services from your documents. For a health question it gives general, publicly documented information and one sentence pointing to a professional; it does not diagnose or give doses.
Does it see patient records?
No. It is not connected to your hospital information system, and the page asks for no name, patient number or ID. Question records contain no identity, IP address or device information.
Do we need to translate our documents?
No. You upload your documents in the language you work in; someone who asks in another language gets the answer in theirs.
We run more than one venue.
Each venue is set up with its own content, codes and reports, all managed from one account. Head office writes once and the venues below it answer from the same information; each manager sees only their own venue.
Can we get a surprise bill?
No. The number of questions is set in the contract and usage is visible in the panel at any time; when the number runs out, no extra charge is made without your approval.
Is the AI trained on our data?
No. The AI is not trained on your data; the documents are read at the moment a question is asked. That is why an update to a document shows up in the answers.
Let's set up the first hospital together
The software is ready and live. We want to do the first setup together with a hospital's patient services team: a limited number of spots to start with, and at the end we read the report of what patients and visitors were looking for together. Scope, duration and terms are agreed in a meeting.
Before we meet: we can build a trial page from the clinic and visitor information on your hospital's website, so you can try the assistant on your own phone with your own hospital's information.