Constitution Health Plaza leverages Watchfire LED signage for hospital visibility

Danville, IL – In the past year, Constitution Health Plaza in Philadelphia put the finishing touches on their renovation of the former St. Agnes Hospital. The installation of a new Watchfire LED digital sign on a 30-foot tall, stand-alone monument situated on the infamous corner of Broad Street and Passyunk Avenue capped off the renovation.

Dubbed a landmark by townspeople, the sign’s visibility to both road and pedestrian traffic has helped patients define the hospital’s location. “They love it because it serves as a unification point for the area – it’s a beacon for the building and a meeting place for friends and family,” said Chris Richards, Marketing Manager of Constitution Health Plaza. During the renovation process, Constitution Health Plaza (CHP) knew signage would be an incredibly important part of the new building. The old signage was serviceable but was scattered and, positioned high on the building’s exterior walls, it didn’t gather much attention. The new sign, situated in the middle of a highly trafficked location, is getting noticed. “We saw the sign as a mixed investment in terms of the infrastructure and the marketing of the building,” said Richards. “When choosing a new sign package, we really wanted something that would look good, stand the test of time and visually fit with the new brand we’ve established. It all came down to the Watchfire LED sign because it could handle our needs for changing tenants.” CHP serves as a multi-purpose medical campus and center for community care. The Plaza offers state-of-the-art facilities to national institutions expanding their footprint in the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley Region. CHP’s largest tenant is Kindred Hospital South Philadelphia (KHSP), a hospital practiced in providing aggressive, specialized, multi-disciplinary care to medically complex patients requiring a longer recovery time. Kindred’s CEO, Deborah Karn, has found the sign to be extremely helpful. “The sign is a lot more than a logo on the building,” said Karn. “The sign’s clarity and location is great and therefore provides an opportunity for multiple tenants in the building to share with the community what they offer in greater detail. It has helped us, Kindred Hospital, to portray our mission to promote healing, provide hope, preserve dignity and help the patients that we serve.” CHP has even reached out to community organizations, giving them the chance to have their messages included on the digital sign. It is Richards’ hope to advertise local events in the neighborhood and increase the visibility of community oriented messages. Richards says that designing and running messages on the sign has been easy with Watchfire’s Ignite software. “A lot of the time I’m working off-site, so to be able to remotely control the content from across the city feels amazing,” said Richards. The mission of CHP is to be a community of care by bringing diverse services from different medical organizations and making them accessible to the surrounding community. Richards states, “The new Watchfire sign has really helped unify that message and make our presence known here in south Philadelphia, and we hope that the display continues to serve this community well into the future.” About Watchfire Headquartered in Danville, Watchfire has manufactured outdoor electric signs since 1932 — then known as Time-O-Matic — and LED signs since 1996. The company has created more than 50,000 Watchfire LED signs for convenience stores, gas stations, retail, banks, schools, places of worship and other locations worldwide and has more digital billboard customers than any other manufacturer.