The Voice of the Patient
Posted in Healthcare, White Paper on July 8th, 2009 by Mark VanderKlipp – Be the first to commentEmploy research to anticipate public perception and behavior
The foundation of good design is research, and the best way to research is to listen to the voice of the patient.
What are your patients telling their friends and families about your facility? Are there aspects of the existing wayfinding system that they use? When they come in (likely under stress), what do they need to know? What don’t they need to know? Do they get the information they need?
More importantly, what immediate and longer-term changes can you make to improve how people navigate your facilities? And what will it cost to make these changes?
Wayfinding considers a visitor’s state of mind by communicating clearly and consistently.
These questions can be answered by engaging in a rapid yet comprehensive assessment of your healthcare environment using the following steps:
- Analyze the patient experience with hospital staff and administrators, using data collected in patient satisfaction surveys, satisfaction questionnaires, etc.
- Document the ways your patients and visitors use wayfinding information, and establish the effectiveness of your current systems through interviews and behavioral observations.
- Summarize wayfinding challenges, issues and opportunities
- Measure the real costs of lost patients, and the potential gains to be made by investing in a new wayfinding system.
- Prioritize fixes that can be made immediately, and lay out a program of long-term changes to put your organization on the right track.
- Organize a diverse internal team to manage wayfinding over time: facilities, marketing, department heads, volunteers.
This analysis will outline how better wayfinding can improve your business strategy, brand development and facilities plans. By digging deep with staff and visitors, then using the data and testimonials to support a business case, you can kick-start a new patient experience effort, or supplement an existing initiative.
The return on your investment? Happier patients and visitors, a more productive staff, and a more efficient and highly regarded healthcare provider. Let us show you how we can help!
Our work has been showcased as part of a series on “Placemaking” within Northwestern Michigan’s Second Wave online magazine. The article features several projects from our portfolio, and an explanation of the phrase “Good design goes unnoticed.”
We came across this gem on YouTube, an interview with our client Arthur Mullen, Director of the Mount Clemens DDA. Among the comments featured in this interview*:
“The wayfinding system is especially important because we have a lot of out of town visitors who are coming into the city and we have a couple different grid systems … and it makes getting around downtown for someone who’s… More...
For the Sept.-Oct. 2011 edition of Medical Construction & Design magazine, Corbin Design president Mark VanderKlipp researched and wrote an article that places wayfinding signage in context with the entire range of brand communications that a healthcare system engages. Using Scripps Health as a case study, the article addresses how internal teams can organize to best approach staff, volunteers, patients and visitors with simple messages that reflect an institution’s culture… More...
Heidi Jones
Hesper Smyth
Mark VanderKlipp
Rick Stringer