EVIDENT
Output category
Project
Area of activity
Objects and environment
Offering
Simulation and co-prototyping
Platform
Extended-Reality Simulation Area
Evidence-Based Architectural Design of Emergency Departments for Greater Communication, Collaboration and Care Delivery
How does the spatial design of emergency departments influence interactions between medical staff and what measurable effects does the quality of the exchange among the staff have on job satisfaction, burnout rates, staff turnover and patient care? Emergency departments are at the front-line in the hospital setting, and understanding how their design relates to these aspects is of crucial importance for future designs that are evidenced-based and geared towards people.
More
Planners of emergency departments face a great challenge: they have to provide optimal support for face-to-face communication (F2F communication) and minimise disruptions while also safeguarding patient privacy. The term “F2F communication” refers to any synchronous social interaction, verbal or nonverbal, between persons physically present in the same place. Despite the great significance of this topic, thus far few studies have shed light on how the design of the spatial layout of emergency departments influence F2F interactions; for example, through aspects like visibility and accessibility between individual rooms, the complexity of the layout as a whole and the arrangement of the functional rooms, all of which influence the movement patterns of medical staff.
The objectives of the interdisciplinary study are:
To show how the spatial design of emergency departments affects F2F interactions
To identify the links between F2F interactions and their outcomes with respect to communication, collaboration and care quality
To develop a digital design tool that can predict how the spatial design of an emergency department will affect F2F interactions within them and their outcomes
To use the tool to help design the emergency department of University Hospital Zurich (USZ)
Activity packages AP
AP0: Project management
AP1: Analysis of the spatial design of emergency departments in the Swiss healthcare system
AP2: Recording the effects of the spatial design of emergency departments on the dynamics of F2F interaction and linking these to outcomes in the areas of communication, collaboration and patient care
AP3: Development of evidence-based simulation tools for the human-centred design of emergency departments
AP4: Evidence-based co-design of emergency departments with the aim of better communication, collaboration and care delivery
The three multi-stakeholder co-design workshops in AP4 will be held in the Extended-Reality Simulation Area of the SCDH and co-moderated by the SCDH.
Term
- 2025 - 2029
Type of Project
- Research collaboration
Lead
- ETH Zürich (Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, Chair of Cognitive Science
- Northumbria University, Department of Architecture & Built Environment
- University of Cambridge, Department of Architecture
Partners
- ETH Zürich, Department of Computer Science
- University Hospital Zurich (USZ), Institute of Emergency Medicine
- University College London, The Bartlett School of Architecture, Space Syntax Laboratory
- University of Bern, Department of Infectious Diseases, Infection prevention programme
- Swiss Center for Design and Health
Funding
- Swiss National Science Foundation
Contact