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Design of Pediatric Outpatient Procedure Environments: A Pilot Study to Understand the Perceptions of Patients and
Swati Goel1, Sahar Mihandoust1, Anjali Joseph1
1Center for Health Facilities Design and Testing, School of Architecture, Clemson University, SC, USA.
Insights
Children and parents prefer comfortable, distracting design features in outpatient centers. Both groups experienced high anxiety before and during procedures, with lower anxiety during recovery.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric healthcare design
- Patient experience research
- Healthcare anxiety studies
Background:
- Same-day pediatric outpatient procedures are increasingly common in the U.S.
- The physical environment significantly impacts patient experience in healthcare settings.
- Limited research exists on patient and family perceptions of outpatient procedural environments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess parent and child perceptions of spaces within an outpatient procedural setting.
- To measure anxiety levels experienced by children and parents during outpatient procedures.
- To correlate environmental perceptions with anxiety in pediatric ambulatory care.
Main Methods:
- Ecological momentary assessment used to gather real-time data.
- Data collected at various stages of the patient journey in an ambulatory surgical center.
- Pediatric gastrointestinal (GI) procedures were the focus; anxiety measured objectively and subjectively.
- Qualtrics survey assessed perceptions of waiting, preprocedure, procedure, and recovery spaces.
Main Results:
- Children favored murals, double chairs, patient beds, wall color, and TVs; disliked medical equipment and non-child-friendly furniture.
- Parents appreciated murals, TVs, and nature photos; disliked lack of privacy, waiting area toys, and non-child-friendly furniture.
- Highest anxiety reported before and during procedures; lowest during recovery for both children and parents.
- No significant differences in physiological anxiety measures (heart rate variability, skin conductance) across the four spaces.
Conclusions:
- Anxiety is present in pediatric outpatient procedures despite their same-day nature.
- Comfortable and distracting design elements are highly valued by both children and parents.
- Environmental design can play a role in mitigating anxiety in pediatric ambulatory care settings.
Objective:
To understand parent and child perception of spaces experienced during outpatient procedures and to measure their anxiety in these spaces.
Background:
Same-day procedures are becoming prevalent among children in the United States. While studies conducted in different types of healthcare settings show that the physical environment influences healthcare experiences of patients, there is a lack of research on patient and family perceptions of the physical environment of the outpatient centers where such procedures are conducted.
Methods:
This study used ecological momentary assessment to collect patient experience and anxiety data at different points during the patient's journey through an ambulatory surgical center where pediatric gastrointestinal (GI) procedures were performed. Objective and subjective measures of anxiety were collected. A Qualtrics survey asked participants' perceptions about four spaces-waiting, preprocedure, procedure, and recovery.
Results:
Child participants reported liking murals, double chairs, patient beds, wall color, and access to a television. They disliked medical equipment and lack of child-friendly furniture. Most parents liked the murals, access to a television, and nature photos, while disliking the lack of privacy, lack of toys in waiting areas, and lack of child-friendly furniture. On average, both children and parents experienced the highest anxiety levels before and during the procedure and the lowest during recovery. Between the four spaces, no significant differences were observed in the heart rate variability and skin conductance responses for both groups.
Conclusions:
Despite the outpatient nature of the procedures, participants experienced anxiety before the GI procedure. Comfortable design features that provide distractions are preferred by children and their parents.
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