WiSpots was founded by Kevin Flannery in 2002 as a provider of consumer WiFi services for coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, etc. The early years of WiSpots proved to be rewarding in that it was constantly adding locations; however, it was challenging in the fact that it wasn’t generating revenue. When the equipment manufacturer and financer that supported WiSpots went out of business, Mr. Flannery was faced with a decision, quit or move in a different direction.

 

Sitting in a medical office staring blankly at the wall while he waited to see his healthcare professional, it hit him. What do advertisers want? A captive, targeted audience. What is more captive than someone sitting in the waiting room “patiently waiting” to see their doctor? 

 

In late, 2005, determined to make WiSpots a success, Flannery transformed WiSpots from a WiFi aggregator into an interactive media network for the waiting room environment of medical practices, hospitals and other healthcare centers. .

 

Over the next four years,  Flannery and his team worked diligently to understand how they could bring the world of media to the medical wait environment in an interactive, educational and entertaining way. The result was WiSpots’ Patient Interaction Center (PIC). The PIC offered patients with the ability to check e-mail, read articles, visit their favorite Web sites, and generally help the time waiting for the doctor pass quicker.

 

The pilot programs proved to be a tremendous success. Participating practices experienced a significant improvement in patient satisfaction and the new source of income from the rental fees paid by WiSpots help turn the waiting room from a cost center to a profit center for the practice. 

 

WiSpots is poised to aggressively pursue its mission of providing physician- and patient-centric software and hardware solutions that maximize profitability by reducing costs and inefficiencies into today’s healthcare environments, improving productivity and capturing revenue from the patient waiting room, while simultaneously improving patient satisfaction through education and entertainment.