Mayo Clinic Benefits from Wide-Format Applications

This article is an addendum to the recently published Wide-Format Impressions article, “A New Image for Healthcare,” which, in its preparation, generated more concepts than it had space to cover them. It presents how a well-known medial entity uses wide-format inkjet its in-plant printing operation to produce numerous applications for a variety of purposes.

In the medical field, Mayo Clinic is an entity with name recognition, and a reputation for care that makes its facilities, including its main Rochester, Minnesota hospital and locations in Scottsdale, Arizona and Jacksonville, Florida, attractive destinations for people seeking specialized care. Mayo Clinic also operates a health system with locations throughout the Midwest.

Defining the Opportunity

According to Michael Semling, business development manager for Mayo Clinic, the company’s in-plant printing operation makes extensive use of wide-format printing to produce applications including wallpaper, murals, window graphics and museum displays. He says there are multiple purposes for these applications: some decorative, some to convey information. For patients and their loved ones, messaging focuses on highlighting healing and helping them feel at ease. For staff, it highlights, for instance, core values.

While much of the wide-format work at Mayo Clinic is for relatively short durations, such as in its waiting rooms and patient education center, where graphics may be tied to current campaigns or messaging priorities, other jobs are designed for the long-term. For instance, the Rochester hospital’s Heritage Hall includes museum displays and multimedia presentations presenting the storied history of the Clinic to all who visit. In its Research Center, displays highlight treatments and cures, presented with an interactive approach.

One recent, large-scale project – a full graphic takeover of Rochester International Airport – required the use of an outside vendor do the volumes required. This type of job had been done twice before, without the use of an outside vendor.

Growing Use of Wide-Format

Semling says he sees the use of wide-format applications growing at Mayo Clinic, and notes he sees an increase in their popularity. “We continue to invest in technology to reduce costs and be able to turn projects more quickly,” he says. He believes part of the increase is due to the increased knowledge of wide-format applications by the company’s design and facilities departments. For the Mayo Clinic shop, Semling says its needs in the wide-format space have grown to the point that it has had to leverage outside vendors.

For installation, that ever-important final aspect of many wide-format projects, Semling says the shop works with a contracted company to handle some projects – particularly those involving vinyl pressure-sensitive vinyl. Other applications, including wallpaper, are installed by internal staff.