Patients at the Wrong Location: A Preventable Access Problem in Large Health Systems
Multi-campus health systems make it surprisingly hard for patients to arrive at the right place, at the right time. Here's why wrong-location arrivals happen—and how well-timed reminders and clear instructions reduce it.
If you run access operations in a large, multi-campus health system, you've certainly heard some version of this:
"I'm here... but I don't see your office."
Sometimes the patient is at the wrong campus. Sometimes they're at the right campus but the wrong building. Sometimes they're in the right building, but at the wrong entrance or check-in desk. Sometimes the direction given by your helpful information staff is misunderstood.
It's what happens when an organization's location complexity outgrows the way it communicates "where to go" to patients.
Wayfinding research backs up what operators already know: healthcare facilities are hard to navigate, and poor wayfinding creates stress and real operational cost—including staff time spent redirecting people and appointments that start late or don't happen at all. [1][2]
The good news is that wrong-location arrivals are meaningfully reducible by tightening the system with cleaner location data, clearer appointment-specific instructions, and reminders that arrive early enough to change behavior.
Why wrong-location arrivals happen
It's rarely the address; It's the last 10%
Most scheduling confirmations include a street address and building name. But on any medical campus, that's only the beginning.
Patients still need to know which entrance, which floor, where to park, where to check in, and how early they should arrive. If that information arrives too late (or not at all), patients improvise. Improvisation is how "I'm here..." turns into "I'm lost."
Different channels tell different versions of the story
Patients book through different paths through your call center, specialty clinic lines, referral coordinators, discharge scheduling, or online portals. When those channels represent the same location differently, or omit the same key details, patients get mixed signals and try to fill in the gaps themselves.
Naming schemes don't match how systems are organized
As health systems expand, add sites, and spread service lines across campuses, over time they accumulate confusing wayfinding.
Common patterns include, multiple "Main" locations (building, entrance, campus, hospital) and multiple departments with similar labels (imaging, radiology, diagnostics).
Patients anchor to what they remember ("I've been to the main hospital before") and assume it's the same "main" place this time.
The operational cost adds up faster than most teams expect
Wrong-location arrivals are both a patient experience problem and a predictable operational waste problem. Even if your "true" appointment time anticipates delays in arrival, the need for extra support still exists when the patient calls and pulls someone away from check-in or scheduling.
Wayfinding research calls out the full costs as lost staff time, missed appointments, delayed meetings, and the need for extra support when people end up in the wrong areas. [1] You probably don't need a journal article to recognize it, but it's useful to know the evidence aligns with your lived experience at your health system.
How to reduce wrong-location arrivals
Treat "location" as structured data
If you want consistent instructions, you need consistent inputs. For each schedulable site, your scheduling system (and every channel that touches it) should be able to produce the same set of patient-facing details reliably:
- A standardized location name patients recognize
- The full street address
- Building / suite / department labels that exactly match on-site signage
- Parking and entrance guidance, or one link that contains it
- Check-in instructions (front desk vs kiosk vs imaging registration)
- A location-specific phone number
Then add in non-patient-facing details like:
- Standardized location IDs
- Back-office phone numbers
- Management position responsible for location
Once it's structured, maintained, and appropriately consumed by downstream scheduling systems, every reminder and every access channel becomes more accurate without adding staff effort.
Confirm the operational destination at booking
At appointment booking time, patients are paying the most attention. It's the best moment to catch confusion early.
- "Wait—this is at the imaging center, not the main hospital?"
- "This says East Entrance. I think I usually go in the South Entrance."
A practical confirmation message via your portal, SMS text message, or email should answer, in plain language: Where should I go? Where do I park? Where do I check in? When should I arrive?
Real-world example: A patient schedules an MRI and assumes it's at the main hospital. Your system books them at an off-campus imaging center because that's where the slot is. If the confirmation simply says "Radiology MRI Suite 101" and a street address, many patients won't catch the difference. If it clearly says, "Imaging Center – North Campus (not the main hospital), Entrance C, park in Lot 3," you prevent a day-of lost patient.
Use reminders as a sequence, not a single message
A day-of reminder with directions helps, but it often arrives after patients have made the decisions for other areas like transportation planning, time off work, caregiver arrangements, and when to leave.
A simple, effective cadence looks like this:
- At booking: confirmation + where to go + what to expect
- A few days before: planning reminder with parking, check-in, prep/paperwork
- 48 hours before: confirm readiness + arrival window
- Day-of: one-click navigation + check-in instructions
There's strong evidence that digital reminders can improve appointment attendance and reduce missed visits. [3][4][5] The same principle applies here: reminders work best when they arrive early enough to change plans and make the next step easier.
Make instructions easy to act on while someone is walking
If you've ever tried to follow a multi-paragraph reminder on a phone while crossing a campus, you know formatting matters.
Generally, you're trying to include one clear destination and one clear action. The full details are too lengthy for this post, but below are two good resources for how to design messages that patients can actually use:
- Health Literacy Online emphasizes making digital content easy to scan and easy to act on. [6]
- The CDC Clear Communication Index is a practical rubric for whether a message has a clear main point and actionable steps. [7]
Also, be careful with "reply keywords" that are used in wayfinding instructions. For example in SMS text messages, "STOP" is commonly used to opt out of messages. If you support replies, use safer keywords like "HELP".
Make every access channel tell the same story
Patients should see the same location representation everywhere. That means making the data from step 1 be uniformly consumed everywhere:
- Portal appointment details
- Email/SMS text message reminders
- Voice reminders
- Call center scripts
- Printed instructions
Consistency here prevents the most damaging moment, when one system or alert says one thing, and another says something slightly different.
The Bottom Line
In large health systems, patients show up at the "wrong location" because the "right answer" isn't obvious early enough or at the right step of their journey.
When you treat location clarity as part of your scheduling workflow — and back it with standardized data and well-timed, appointment-specific reminders — you reduce day-of calls, protect provider and equipment schedules, and make access feel calmer and more reliable.
References
- Morag I, Heylighen A, Pintelon L. "Evaluating the inclusivity of hospital wayfinding systems for people with diverse needs and abilities." J Health Serv Res Policy. 2016;21(4):243–248. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Devlin AS. "Wayfinding in Healthcare Facilities: Contributions from Environmental Psychology." Behav Sci (Basel). 2014;4(4):423–436. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Gurol-Urganci I, de Jongh T, Vodopivec-Jamsek V, Atun R, Car J. "Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments." Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013;(12):CD007458. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Robotham D, Satkunanathan S, Reynolds J, Stahl D, Wykes T. "Using digital notifications to improve attendance in clinic: systematic review and meta-analysis." BMJ Open. 2016;6:e012116. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Ulloa-Pérez E, Blasi PR, Westbrook EO, Lozano P, Coleman KF, Coley RY. "Pragmatic Randomized Study of Targeted Text Message Reminders to Reduce Missed Clinic Visits." Perm J. 2022;26(1):64–72. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. "Health Literacy Online: A guide to writing and designing easy-to-use health Web sites." 2010. health.gov
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "CDC Clear Communication Index: User Guide." 2019. cdc.gov