Healthcare
Waiting room screens for medical practices, clinics and pharmacies
ORKESTA puts the information your practice prepares on your waiting room screens: services, opening hours, who is seeing patients today, prevention campaigns, how to book. Update it from your laptop or phone, give it a start and an end date, and the screens at every location update on their own. It doesn't call patients and doesn't show their data. You pay per screen, from €18 a month, with a 14-day free trial.
Healthcare
What to show on your waiting room screens
Six common uses for medical practices, dental clinics, outpatient centres and pharmacies. The practice prepares every piece of content: a template, an image, a video. For pharmacy windows and promotions, see our Retail page.
Services, hours and who's in today
Your services, front-desk hours, which doctors are seeing patients today. Change a time or an absence in the dashboard and the screen updates right away. Prepare the holiday closure notice in advance and schedule it with its dates: it appears and disappears on its own, with no notes taped to the door.
How to book and what to bring
The number and hours for booking, documents to bring, how to prepare for a test: the questions your front desk hears every day, written once on the screen.
Prevention and health campaigns
Seasonal vaccinations, screening programmes, health awareness days: add the materials to a playlist with images and videos and give each campaign a start and an end date. It only plays in the weeks it's needed.
A less empty wait
A playlist that mixes useful information, images and short videos gives people something to read and watch while they wait, instead of a blank screen or a random TV channel.
Notices for staff
In the staff room or the back of the pharmacy: rotas, procedures, deadlines and internal reminders. Assign them only to screens in staff-only areas, away from the ones patients see.
Outpatient centres and multiple sites
Screens from every site sit in the same dashboard: shared campaigns everywhere, different hours and specialists for each location. Manage them from one place and see whether each one is online.
Healthcare
Notice board or screen? A quick comparison
In many waiting rooms, information lives on sheets of paper and signs on the wall. A screen doesn't have to replace them: it pays off where there's a lot of information or it changes often.
| What matters | Signs and notice board | Waiting room screen |
|---|---|---|
| Changing a time or an absence | Reprint and re-pin the sheet, site by site. | Edit it in the dashboard and every relevant screen changes. |
| How much information | Whatever fits on the wall; with too many sheets, nobody reads them. | One message at a time, rotating, for as long as you decide. |
| Time-limited campaigns and notices | Someone has to take them down when they end. | Every item has a start and an end date: it goes on and comes off by itself. |
| What you need | Paper, a printer and a notice board. | A monitor or TV, a media player if the TV isn't supported, and a fee of €18 per screen per month. |
| If the connection drops | No problem. | The last content received stays on screen; changes arrive once it's back online. |
A notice board is enough if there's little information, it rarely changes and the practice has a single site.
A screen helps if hours and staff availability change often, if you want to run prevention campaigns for set periods, or if you manage several sites from one place.
Healthcare
What to show, and what not to
In healthcare, a waiting room screen needs three extra kinds of care: patient privacy, the rules on healthcare advertising, and readability for people with poorer eyesight.
No patient data
ORKESTA only shows content that the practice prepares and uploads, and stores it in the European Union, on Oracle Cloud servers in the Netherlands. It isn't a queue management system, it doesn't call patients, and it doesn't connect to appointment books, practice management software or booking systems. Names, appointment times, test results or any other information about a person's health don't belong on the screens: under the GDPR, data concerning health is a special category of personal data (Article 9). In Italy, the Privacy Code also forbids disclosing it to the public (Art. 2-septies(8)), and the data protection authority (Garante) asks healthcare facilities to call patients without using their names, for example with a number, and considers lists of patients displayed in waiting areas unjustified. That decision dates from 2005, and the Garante has confirmed it is compatible with the GDPR since 2018.
Healthcare advertising: inform, don't promote
Many countries regulate how healthcare providers advertise. In Italy, for example, Law 145/2018 (Art. 1, para. 525, as replaced in 2023) allows private healthcare facilities and members of the health professions' registers to publish only information that supports correct health information, such as qualifications, specialisations, service features, prices and costs. Any attractive or suggestive element, such as offers, discounts and promotions, is excluded. If the rules are breached, the professional bodies start disciplinary proceedings and report the case to AGCOM, the communications authority (para. 536). For doctors and dentists, the Italian code of medical ethics (Art. 56) limits such advertising to qualifications, specialisations, professional activity, service features and fees, and requires it to be truthful, accurate and never misleading. In Italian pharmacies, only non-prescription medicines not reimbursed by the national health service may be advertised to the public, and each message needs Ministry of Health authorisation, with few exceptions (Legislative Decree 219/2006, Arts. 115 and 118). Check the rules that apply in your country.
Readable for the people waiting
Waiting rooms are often full of older people or people with poorer eyesight. Use large, simple fonts, strong contrast between text and background and only a few lines per slide, and leave each slide on screen long enough to read. Don't rely on colour or video alone for anything important. Before publishing, look at the screen from the furthest chair. As a reference point, the WCAG web guidelines ask for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text.
This is a general summary, not legal advice. Before publishing, have your content checked by a professional (a lawyer or a healthcare advertising consultant) and, for your practice, refer to the text of the rules, your professional body and your data protection advisor.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679, GDPR (EUR-Lex) (opens in a new tab)
- Italian Legislative Decree 196/2003, Privacy Code, Art. 2-septies (Normattiva, in Italian) (opens in a new tab)
- Italian Data Protection Authority, Healthcare facilities: respect for dignity, 9 November 2005, doc. web 1191411 (in Italian) (opens in a new tab)
- Italian Law 145/2018, Art. 1, paras. 525 and 536 (Normattiva, in Italian) (opens in a new tab)
- Italian Decree-Law 69/2023, Art. 6: new text of para. 525 (Normattiva, in Italian) (opens in a new tab)
- FNOMCeO, Italian Code of Medical Ethics (in Italian) (opens in a new tab)
- Italian Legislative Decree 219/2006, Art. 118 (Normattiva, in Italian) (opens in a new tab)
- W3C, WCAG 2.2, Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (opens in a new tab)
Healthcare
How it works, in four steps
All you need is a screen, a connection and an account. Every tool is listed on the Features page.
Connect the screen
Launch ORKESTA on the waiting room screen and pair it with your account using the QR code or an 8-digit PIN, on any platform.
Prepare your content
Start from a template and add your hours, services and notices. Upload campaign images and videos to the media library.
Build and schedule
Add templates to a playlist with images and videos and decide when they play: every day, mornings only, or from a campaign's start date to its end date.
Update and check remotely
Change a time from your phone and see whether every screen is online, at every site. If the connection drops, the screen keeps showing the last content it received.
Healthcare
Which screens it runs on
No ORKESTA hardware required: use the smart TV or monitor already in your waiting room, or plug in a supported device. ORKESTA runs on 9 platforms and is optimised for Fire TV. Not sure about your model? Get in touch.
- Samsung smart TVs (Tizen) from 2018, installed via URL
- LG smart TVs (webOS) from 2016, with a native app
- Android 8+ tablets and devices
- Android TV smart TVs and dongles
- Amazon Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Cube
- BrightSign professional players
- Raspberry Pi 3, 4 and 5 with Chromium
- Chromebooks and Chromeboxes (ChromeOS)
- Any modern web browser
Healthcare
What it costs
You pay a monthly fee for each connected screen; the screen itself isn't included. Every figure is the final price, no VAT added (Italian flat-rate tax scheme). Even the Basic plan includes templates, scheduling and remote monitoring.
- Basic: €18 per screen per month, up to 5 screens
- Pro: €32 per screen per month, up to 10 screens, with multiple users and reports
- Enterprise: €45 per screen per month, for healthcare groups and networks with 15 or more screens
Annual billing saves 20%. For example, a practice with one screen in the waiting room and one at reception, on the Basic plan, pays €36 a month, or €28.80 a month billed annually. You start with a 14-day free trial; plans and the price configurator are on the Pricing page.
Healthcare
Waiting room screens FAQ
No. ORKESTA is not a queue management system and does not connect to calendars, practice software or calling systems: it only shows the content prepared by the practice. If you need a system to call patients, Sygnaptica can build a custom one for your practice, integrated with your tools and calling patients by code rather than by name, as the Italian Data Protection Authority asks: see custom development in the Services section.
None, unless you enter it yourself: the screens only show text, images and videos uploaded by the practice. Don't publish names, appointments or health information: under the GDPR, data concerning health is a special category of personal data, and Italian law forbids disclosing it to the public.
In the European Union, on Oracle Cloud servers in the Netherlands: that's where the content you upload for your screens and your account data live. The screens don't need any patient data to work.
It depends on your country's rules. In Italy, information is allowed: services, qualifications, specialisations, service features, prices and costs. Offers, discounts, promotions and other attractive or suggestive elements are not (Law 145/2018, Art. 1, para. 525, and, for doctors and dentists, Art. 56 of the code of medical ethics). If in doubt, ask your professional body.
Yes, if it's a Samsung smart TV from 2018 or an LG from 2016. Otherwise all you need is an HDMI input to plug in a supported device, such as a Fire TV Stick or an Android TV box.
No. The screen keeps showing the last content it received. Changes made in the meantime arrive once it's back online.
Yes. All screens sit in the same dashboard: the same campaigns everywhere, different hours and specialists for each site. On the Pro plan you can invite other people with different roles (owner, admin, editor, viewer), such as the front desk at each site.
On the Basic plan, €36 a month billed monthly, or €28.80 a month billed annually. That's the final price, no VAT added (Italian flat-rate tax scheme). The screen and any device you plug into it are extra.
Yes, there's a 14-day free trial: connect a screen, prepare your first slides and see how they read from the waiting room before choosing a plan.
Want to try it in your waiting room?
Request a demo for your practice, or see the plans and start a 14-day free trial.