It has been found out that the design or architecture of hospitals or other such health centres matters a lot when it comes to final health outcomes. The layout and size of a room, plus the fitment of beds in which part of the room, matters more than meets the eye. This is known as social design and has been in existence longer than design thinking. While the latter is focused on providing solutions to individual users, the former is for communities as a whole. A prime example of this social design is the collaboration between the MASS Design Group and Dr. Neel Shah. This experiment has been most successful in developing tropical countries such as in Rwanda and Haiti, where the spread of contagious diseases has been checked. Some principles have been identified that are adaptable enough to be used in all environments. First of all, the vision must also reflect on the final goals. There will be people who won’t appreciate the initiative. Their inputs must be tallied to see where things could go wrong. Those not visible need to be brought into the mainstream. Maps to help all understand the plan is one such way. There must be continuous experimentation before arriving at the desired point.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/10/how-the-architecture-of-hospitals-affects-health-outcomes?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert_activesubs&utm_content=signinnudge&referral=00563&deliveryName=DM16476

Upload Date:10 November 2018