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What a Designer Can Do
In healthcare, a designer can do a lot to influence the patient experience, the hospital’s bottom line and the happiness of healthcare providers.
Without a doubt, healthcare represents the most personal and complex service provided in today’s market. There is an intimate exchange of personal information, often with strangers. There are complex, frightening and painful tests and procedures that must be performed. On top of that, life-and-death decisions are made constantly. The staff speaks an entirely different language and buildings can be daunting and hard to navigate.
The Designer’s Duty
As a healthcare designer, it’s our duty to understand that the design of the building can help reduce the stress experienced by patients, their families, and the healthcare teams caring for them.
One way to break it down is to recognize the stakeholders and see the hospital as they see it:
- For staff, it is a work place.
- Patients and their families see it as a place of healing.
- The establishment see’s it as a business.
- The organization sees it as a cultural environment for the establishment to fulfill it’s mission and visions.
It’s up to the designer to ensure that all stakeholders are supported. And, it’s up to the establishment to understand that a well designed facility can be a revenue-producing investment.
An Evidence-Based Designer
Becoming an evidence based designer is important in today’s market. This community of forward thinkers envision a world where all healthcare environments are created to cut operational costs and deliver the best treatment possible while helping to reduce stress experienced by patients, their families and caregivers.
Marie Wikoff, of Wikoff Design Studio recently received a new design credential for Evidence-Based Design Accreditation and Certification or EDAC. The sought-after qualification in the design industry especially appeals to healthcare environments because it encourages design techniques that result in improvements to an organization’s outcomes, economic performance, productivity and customer satisfaction.An evidence-based designer makes decisions that have positive outcomes for each of the stakeholders.
The Evidence Based Design Techniques:
- Appeal to doctors and physicians who practice based on medical evidence.
- Give patients and families higher quality experiences.
- Resonates with business-minded administrators by reducing costs and improving organizational effectiveness.
- Helps hospital boards as they seek evidence to justify costly decisions.
- Benefits the public, consumer groups, and those paying the bills as they seek effective, lower-cost healthcare.
The End-Game
In the end, the designer can do a lot, especially an Evidence-Based Designer. If a healthcare organization is truly interested in providing an optimal physical setting, they need to call in an Evidence-Based Designer. They can work together to create a positive and productive synergy with the service process and the client experience.
The end result will be an increase in satisfaction for staff, patients, and relatives. It will have a positive impact on management and finance and will strengthen the hospital’s professional profile and competitive position helping it become a center of excellence.
Source: EDAC – Evidence-Based Design, Exploring Healthcare and Design, The Center for Health Design.
