Humanisation and soft qualities in emergency rooms

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Patient Experience Research
• Healthcare Design

Background:

• Emergency departments (EDs) critically impact patient psycho-physical well-being.
• Existing evaluation methods lack focus on social aspects like humanization and user well-being in EDs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel assessment tool for humanization and well-being in healthcare settings.
• To enhance the quality of emergency department environments through user-centered evaluation.

Main Methods:

• A three-phase research approach was employed.
• Phase 1: State-of-the-art analysis of environmental factors and user interactions.
• Phase 2: Development of a questionnaire focusing on humanization and comfort.
• Phase 3: Application and analysis of the developed instrument.

Main Results:

• The study presents data from a case study in Milan.
• Analysis of responses provided design suggestions for improving ED environments.
• The effectiveness of the tool in assessing user perceptions was demonstrated.

Conclusions:

• The developed tool offers a method to evaluate social aspects in healthcare, specifically humanization and well-being.
• Application of this tool can lead to enhanced quality and staff efficiency in EDs.
• Future work will focus on broader implementation and refinement of the tool.