New wayfinding tools helps patients, families navigate expanded hospital campus

August 1, 2017

When Texas Children’s Hospital opened its doors in 1954, we had 224,000 square feet of space located in the middle of the Texas Medical Center. Today, our medical complex stretches across the greater Houston area and consists of more than 8 million square feet of multi-floor buildings, offices and parking garages.

As Texas Children’s continues to expand its services and facilities, navigating the hallways and buildings of a large hospital campus can be a bit challenging for patients and their families, including our faculty, employees and staff.

“We want to make our patient experience as seamless and compassionate as possible,” said Vice President Matt Girotto, who is leading the wayfinding initiative. “Eliminating some of our wayfinding hurdles to make it easier for patients and their families to get to where they need to go will enhance their experience immensely, allowing them to focus on what is most important – their medical care.”

With the recent opening of Texas Children’s Hospital in The Woodlands, the renaming of the Clinical Care Tower in honor of our longtime President and CEO Mark A. Wallace, and the remarkable progress being made on the Legacy Tower, new enhancements are being implemented to improve wayfinding across the system.

Wallace Tower transition

The transition process of renaming the Clinical Care Tower to the Mark A. Wallace Tower will take several months to complete and will be conducted in two phases.

  • Phase I: Signs, email signatures, patient handouts/communications, patient letters, scripts for patient calls can be edited now to include “Wallace Tower (formerly Clinical Care Tower)” until the transition phase is completed.
  • Phase II: Information Services (IS) will reprogram all Epic and IS systems to “MW” and “Wallace Tower.” This process will take six months. Once completed, the updates will go live at once across the system.
  • When Phase II is completed approximately by the end of this year, all transition references of “Wallace Tower (formerly Clinical Care Tower)” will need to be adjusted to reflect the final name of “Wallace Tower.”
  • For now, printed materials that list “Clinical Care Center” or “Clinical Care Tower” can continue to be used. They do not need to be updated until current inventory is depleted or the transition is complete, whichever comes first.
Campus maps

Updated maps of Texas Children’s Medical Center Campus, Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands are now available for download and print. Click here to download the maps.

Texas Medical Center Campus Level 3 Bridge map

A new map detailing destinations and amenities on the Level 3 bridge connecting Wallace Tower, Legacy Tower, Pavilion for Women and West Tower is now available for print, download or web linking.

Wayfinding web app

It is now easier than ever to access wayfinding information on the go. Follow these steps to create a bookmark on the home screen of your phone that links directly to wayfinding information. The app is available for Android and iPhones, and will be updated with West Campus and The Woodlands information in the near future.

Information stations

Texas Children’s will eventually have 22 digital building directories across all campuses once implemented at Legacy Tower and West Campus. All information station monitors are touch-screen activated and feature a corresponding campus map, step-by-step directions to various locations. The information stations are a self-service resource to provide real-time information to visitors.

In addition to these updated wayfinding resources, remember the best wayfinding aid is the Texas Children’s employee who asks a patient, family or visitor how they can help. If you have any map printing needs or comments about wayfinding at Texas Children’s, contact wayfinding@texaschildrens.org.