Enhanc­ing Patient Expe­ri­ence: OSF Health­Care Can­cer Insti­tute Signage

The OSF Health­Care Can­cer Insti­tute, a brand-new $237 mil­lion state-of-the-art can­cer treat­ment and research facil­i­ty, is sit­u­at­ed on the OSF Saint Fran­cis Med­ical Cen­ter cam­pus in Peo­ria, Illi­nois. Span­ning 200,000 square feet across five floors ded­i­cat­ed to can­cer care, edu­ca­tion, and research, it con­sol­i­dates resources from var­i­ous OSF loca­tions in Peo­ria under one roof. OSF Health­Care and POINT­CORE Con­struc­tion, the con­struc­tion man­ag­er, enlist­ed the exper­tise of Lat­i­tude Sig­nage + Design to Design-Build (design, plan, fab­ri­cate, and install) all sig­nage with­in the facil­i­ty. Lat­i­tude also planned and devel­oped a new cam­pus-wide exte­ri­or Wayfind­ing sig­nage plan to ensure clear nav­i­ga­tion for patients and vis­i­tors to the Can­cer Insti­tute and OSF Health­care exist­ing buildings.

CEO Bob Ander­son expressed to WBCU​.org, ​“We’ve worked very hard to cen­ter our­selves around the patient and their can­cer jour­ney. That means start­ing with nav­i­ga­tion, ensur­ing patients know where to go, and assist­ing them in plan­ning their appoint­ments and their can­cer journey.”

Design-Build: Exte­ri­or + Inte­ri­or Signage

Coor­di­nat­ing sig­nage for both the Can­cer Insti­tute and OSF Saint Fran­cis cam­pus required effi­cient coor­di­na­tion. Under the lead­er­ship of Tom Wilcox­en, the Lat­i­tude team pre­sent­ed a com­pre­hen­sive plan encom­pass­ing the plan­ning, design, and rough bud­get­ing of sig­nage for the new Can­cer Insti­tute and cam­pus-wide. Lever­ag­ing con­struc­tion plans, our Expe­ri­en­tial Graph­ic Design team pro­grammed every space with appro­pri­ate Room ID sig­nage, Wayfind­ing sig­nage, Code sig­nage, and more. For exte­ri­or sig­nage, the team assessed exist­ing sig­nage and traf­fic routes, address­ing wayfind­ing con­straints and issues in con­sul­ta­tion with OSF Health­Care lead­ers. Once sig­nage types and quan­ti­ties were deter­mined and designed, Tom pro­vid­ed an accu­rate quote for approval, after which fab­ri­ca­tion commenced.

Brand­ing the Can­cer Insti­tute exte­ri­or entailed installing three build­ing-mount­ed logo signs. Giv­en the unique archi­tec­tur­al ter­ra-cot­ta pan­el façade, our team metic­u­lous­ly sealed pen­e­tra­tions from the inside dur­ing instal­la­tion to pre­serve struc­tur­al integri­ty. Swing stages were employed for sig­nage instal­la­tion due to com­plet­ed land­scap­ing at the build­ing’s base.

Inte­ri­or sig­nage and room iden­ti­fi­ca­tion signs boast sim­plic­i­ty, sophis­ti­ca­tion, and upgrad­abil­i­ty. Clean lines and pol­ished edges enhance sign design. Lever­ag­ing the blue glass walls of ele­va­tor lob­bies, Lat­i­tude incor­po­rat­ed a flo­ral theme for each floor, seam­less­ly inte­grat­ing nature from the gar­den. Cus­tomized café sig­nage and wall graph­ics fur­ther enhance spa­tial intent.

Tom Wilcox­en, Direc­tor of Busi­ness Devel­op­ment at Lat­i­tude, asserts, ​“We can tru­ly design, build, and think out­side the box to get things done.” Lat­i­tude’s team of design­ers and installers brings a high lev­el of exper­tise to every project.

Ele­vat­ed Donor Signage

The OSF Foun­da­tion aims to hon­or impact­ful donors, reflect­ed in the inclu­sion of a large donor wall, named spaces, and room donor sig­nage at the Can­cer Institute.

The Main Donor Wall, a bold state­ment mea­sur­ing 50 feet wide and over 10 feet high, com­pris­es acrylic pan­els hung on a stone wall. The stag­gered arrange­ment of 16-inch-wide pan­els cre­ates a wave-like effect, com­ple­ment­ed by dig­i­tal­ly print­ed vinyl in vary­ing blue hues. Mat­te acrylic donor plaques, fea­tur­ing dig­i­tal­ly print­ed raised let­ter­ing, adorn the panels.

Hang­ing the pan­els on the stone wall posed a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge. Col­lab­o­ra­tion with the stone man­u­fac­tur­er led to the devel­op­ment of best prac­tices for drilling into the wall. Using a cus­tom-built drill, the instal­la­tion team suc­cess­ful­ly cre­at­ed 300 holes over four days with­out com­pro­mis­ing wall integrity.

Wendy Mitchell, Vice Pres­i­dent of Foun­da­tion Oper­a­tions for OSF Health­Care Foun­da­tion, notes, ​“The reac­tion from our donors, patients, fam­i­lies, and care­givers to the mag­ni­tude of the donor wall at the OSF Can­cer Insti­tute was as we antic­i­pat­ed, ​‘How can I get my name on the wall?’ The wall itself is just breath­tak­ing and cer­tain­ly has exceed­ed our leadership’s expec­ta­tions. The OSF Health­Care Can­cer Insti­tute donor wall is a shin­ing exam­ple of the gen­eros­i­ty of the com­mu­ni­ty and can be a sym­bol of hope and heal­ing for our patients.”

Grow­ing Sig­nage Needs:

The new build­ing’s con­struc­tion altered cam­pus flow, neces­si­tat­ing addi­tion­al direc­tion­al and wayfind­ing sig­nage. Lat­i­tude seam­less­ly inte­grat­ed these signs with the orig­i­nal sig­nage pack­age, ensur­ing con­ti­nu­ity in nav­i­ga­tion aids.

The Lat­i­tude team excels at man­ag­ing the logis­tics of large-scale projects like this one. ​“We plan, design, fab­ri­cate, and install,” says Tom Wilcox­en. ​“Oth­er com­pa­nies may design signs, but few can exe­cute a turnkey solu­tion like we can.”

Have ques­tions on our Design-Build process, donor walls, or inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or sig­nage? Con­nect today to get answers.