At the recent conference European Healthcare Design Triagonal presented a new holistic, “red thread”-take on the understanding of wayfinding and healthcare user-journeys.
Today the user-journey for longer courses of treatment is cut up and tends to start over and over again at the parking lot and end when the patient exits the healthcare facility. Often, this means that patients have to process a lot of information upon their arrival as they have no means to prepare themselves for what lies ahead. Thus, they not only have to worry about the reason for their visit but also how and if they will get to their appointment in time causing discomfort and stress.
This challenge cannot be solved properly using only traditional means of wayfinding and patient information at the hospital. We need to consider the entire course of treatment as a holistic, integrated user-journey that starts and ends in the local communities. This way we can use all relevant touch points to provide the patient with the information and reassurance it takes to create a sense of safety and transparency that the traditional user-journey lacks.
Find the poster and abstract from the conference here.