By Healthcare Facilities Today

With patient-focused care a top priority for healthcare providers, many organizations are realizing the value of asking patients, families, and visitors to play a role in design, according to an article on the Healthcare Design website.

These groups are some of the most important users of a healthcare facility and have emotional insights into the patient experience that can help drive meaningful design decisions, the article said. But first, designers need to learn how to capture that feedback.

Fortunately, there are several ways to gather this kind of information, ranging from passive approaches, like observation and shadowing, to more active ones, such as conducting interviews and facilitating focus groups. These methods can be broken down into three categories of participation: watch, listen, and engage.

Once insights are collected, the architect or designer can evaluate, distill, synthesize, and interpret the information in a way that helps shape the patient experience, the article said. Since interior design can be very subjective, the research should serve only as a framework for beginning the design process.

By taking the time to gather feedbackdesigners can better understand whom they’re designing for and why, leading to more conscientious, patient-focused design solutions.

Read the article.