Designing New Hospitals -Who Cares About the Patients?

Abstract

The design of hospital environments and processes impacts patients' experiences and feelings. This paper explores how patients' experiences are considered in the design process of new hospitals, specifically focusing on the use of co-design methods including patients. Prior work, largely focused on improvements to ongoing care processes, has highlighted a variety of challenges. Our investigation reflects on observations from weekly planning meetings and the use of virtual reality tools in the design phase of two new hospitals. Our findings suggest that, although opportunities exist for patient experience-centric innovation, the tight schedules and intangibility of new-build limit what is achievable.