Hospital Five Senses

Hospital Five Senses Manual Report

Ayesha Al Hashmi g00065558

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Executive Summary Introduction Secondary Research Design Brief Primary Research Solution References Appendix

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Executive Summary

This manual report explores the importance of hospital environment’s experience through patient’s five senses; sight, smell, taste, hear, and touch. First, it introduces Dubai Rashid Hospital’s background briefly and its lack of awareness towards this matter. Second, the secondary research explains the five senses effects on patients satisfacing experience in other hospitals. Third, the design brief talks about the design problem and establishes a foundation of design objectives, principles, and requirements by stating the approach that will help to guide design decisions. Fourth, the primary research demonstrations Dubai Rashid Hospital’s design problem through observations, personas, surveys, and interviews. Fifth, the problem is solved by several suggestions from Hospital Five Senses company.

Keywords: design, space, color, environment, experience, five-senses, patient, hospital

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Intoduction

Nowadays, some hospitals aren’t aware of its environment effect on the patient’s experience. They believe that hospitals are only for healing injuries and getting paid for it. However, they are wrong because hospital’s main purpose is about giving the patients a satisfying experience in all ways in order for them to heal.

First, they need to understand the hospital’s environment experience through the five senses. The five senses are sight, smell, taste, hear, and touch. These senses play a major role in helping patients heal and recover faster while being comfortable in the hospital’s environment.

Therefore, one of these hospitals that needs to improve its environment’s patient experience through the five senses is Dubai Rashid Hospital. This governmental hospital was built in 1973. It is the second oldest hospital in Dubai, with over 771 hospitals beds. They have the best medical equipment’s they could afford for curing patients (About Rashid Hospital, n.d.). However, even though they have developed and improved their technology, they still haven’t improved their environments experience through the five senses due to their unawareness of this matter.

Hence, they need to be acknowledged of this problem and its effects on patients mental, physical, and emotional healing.

Hospital environment’s patient experience through the five senses plays a major role in hospital services.

Since these senses control the patients healing rate through the atmosphere they offer the patients. If the environment was easy for the patients to adapt and comfortable, they will be in a positive state allowing them to heal and recover faster. But, if it was difficult for them to

adapt and uncomfortable, they will be in a negative state causing them to heal at a slower rate and for negative side effects to arise. Thus, using design hospital environment’s patient experience through the five senses could be improved to achieve patients satisfaction.

Research Question: How can we improve Dubai Rashid Hospital’s environment by considering the five senses as part of the patient’s experience?

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Secondary Research

Patient Experience

Patient Satisfaction

Hospital Interior Space And Environment

Five Senses

Hospital environment is part of the patient’s healing process. It’s an area where patients can either adapt and accept or preserve and reject. Hence, by rejecting or accepting the environment the patient discussed the hospital’s efficiency. There are several factors that affect the hospital’s environment and one of them is through the five senses; hear, sight, smell, touch, and, taste.

Hear. Patient room’s noise is the first thing that a patient realizes when they enter the hospital. It’s the main cause of their discomfort, especially in public patient rooms. Noise affects the patients healing process by disturbing their sleep pattern and causing them stress.

One of the hospital patients also mentioned in healthcare experience survey: “If I can’t rest, I can’t heal”. This could decrease the hospital service quality. While, less noisy hospitals allow the patients to relax, heal faster, in which it leads to shortening their hospital stay (Duffy, 2016).

Sight. Patient rooms color has a great effect on the patient’s psychology. If the room’s furniture or wall or floor had no color, the patients will get bored, depressed, unhappy, in which it gives them a negative mood. This makes them heal slower mentally and physically. However, by having different light colors, which represents happiness and healing the patients would feel cheerful, less stressful, and less anxiety. For example, Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora used light green, blue, yellow, and beige to improve cancer patient rooms atmosphere. Moreover, the lighting of the room should include natural sunlight more than artificial light, giving the patient room a warm feeling (Mahnke, 1996).

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Smell. Patient rooms medical smell is stronger in private patient rooms than public. It gives the patients negative feelings, such as nauseate and uncomfortableness. This stresses the patients a lot and makes them hate the room they are currently living in.

This doesn’t affect just the new patients, but also the be workers. Nevertheless, other hospitals use air purifiers with nonchemical fruit scents or machines that diffuse calming anti-bacterial Essential Oils. Studies have found that before using Essential Oils 40% of the workers were stressed, but after using it 3% were stressed (Improving ‘Hospital Smell’ with essential oils and aromatherapy, 2013).

Touch. Hospital bed-furniture touch plays a huge role in the patient’s experience especially since they tend to spend a long time laying on the bed. In some hospitals, the patient beds are rough and uncomfortable since the patients are still not used to the medical beds. Those beds are uncomfortable because they have a rough medical mattress, contains thick material like metal which helps to move from one room to another, and etc. But, some hospitals use soft bedsheet fabric and double mattress to keep the patient relaxed and able to sleep more peacefully (Marberry,1997).

Taste. Hospital food taste can affect the patient’s appetite and mood. A recent study showed that nearly nine million hospital meals go uneaten every year. Most patients stopped eating hospital food due to its taste not because it is healthy. They even started to order food from out of the hospital field just to enjoy tasty food flavors. This food could affect the patient’s diet and cause them to be sicker.

And even if they did eat from the hospital food they would not be happy and satisfied psychological due to their hate towards the hospital food taste. Hence, both outcomes would lead the patients healing rate to decrease greatly.

While other hospitals care about their food production and taste. They believe that food taste is part of the healing, so they give their patients different types of health food with different flavors to keep them mental happy. These hospitals care about their patient’s psychology and not just their physical injuries, in which patients tend to heal faster in these hospitals (Patients tell me, you wouldn’t serve this food to pigs, 2014).

In conclusion, understanding patients’ needs are important to satisfy their experiences with hospital environment through the five senses. When patients are satisfied with the experience they tend to heal faster and their hospital stay shortens. This gives the patients a positive energy. Hence, satisfying patient’s needs is the best way to heal them.

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Design Brief

Aim: Improve Dubai Rashid Hospital’s environment experience by considering the impact of the hospital experience on the visitor’s senses.

Objectives: • Evaluate hospital cleanness and neatness.

• Understand the hospital environment and its interior space.

• Interview the long and short timed patients about their experience in Dubai Rashid Hospital.

• Investigate innovative and creative ways to advance hospital experience.

• Improve the hospital’s five senses experience in patient rooms.

Research Question: How can we improve Dubai Rashid Hospital’s environment by considering the five senses as part of the patient’s experience?

Client: Dubai Rashid Hospital (Research and Development Department).

Friends

Nurses

Children

Physicians

Siblings

Patient

Relavtive

Healthcare

Family Primary Doctors

Co-Workers

Stakeholder Diagram: This diagram describes the levels of who are effected by Dubai Rashid Hospital’s environment and user experience through the five senses.

First, the most effected are the patients. Second, most effected are the nurses, healthcare, primary doctors, and physicians. Third, the least individuals who are effected are friends, relatives, family, co-worker’s siblings, and relatives.

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Business name: Hospital Five Senses Client contact: Dubai Rashid Hospital Contact number: 04 219 2000 Due date for completion: Start Date: October 2, 2017 End Date: November 10, 2017 Review date/s: 1st review date would be at October 10 to check if everything is on track. 2nd review is at October 20 to see if there are any difficulties or problems regarding the project. 3rd will be at October 28 which is before the submission for the final touches.

Budget: There will be limitations to spending money on the hospital environment (not more than 10 thousand dhs). For instance, 1000 dhs will be spend more fixing the patient rooms furniture and colour. 70 dhs for improving food services.

Product/service/brand name: Improving Rashid Hospital Environment and Patients Experience.

Key objectives: Improve patients experience with five senses in Rashid Hospital. Help patients heal faster by developing a healthy and relaxing hospitals environment.

Marketing objectives and target audience: Improve female and male patient’s room experience between the age of 18-40 years old in Dubai Rashid Hospital through the five senses (sight, taste, smell, touch, hear).

Regulatory issues: Financial cost and supply delay.

Scope: It needs to be done by November 10, 2017.

It should improve the five senses: • Smell: What does the hospital or patient rooms smell like? Medication?

• Taste: How is the food taste and services?

• Noise: Are the patient rooms noisy or quiet? Why is it noisy? Do the walls of the patient room block the noise of the hospital?

• Sight: How is the room lightening (window, lights)? What do they feel about the patient room’s interior colour?

What about the furniture colour?

• Touch: Are the furniture comfy? Is the fabric soft or rough?

Not in scope: Each patient room should be designed in a certain colour to give a certain emotion. The furniture should have a comfy and relaxing texture. The food service should be taste and arranged in a way it would make the patient look forward to eating it. Noise should be blocked out from the room with a sound proof door and walls.

Purpose and function: Improve female and male patient’s room experience between the age of 18-40 years old in Dubai Rashid Hospital through the five senses (sight, taste, smell, touch, hear). This will help patients heal faster mentally, emotionally, physically since the environment is no longer uncomfortable. The patient would be contented in

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the hospital for healing and recovering only. Moreover, the patient gets to feel many different emotions based on their rooms colour.

Format: The prototype will be shown in a high-resolution illustrations and pictures to show how the patient rooms will be improved bases on its environment services and experiences.

Design Project plan: The designer’s team will be responsible since they will plan and preform the service for the client which is the hospital and its patients. The food service will be improved. The interior space with its furniture of the patient rooms will be changed into light and calming colours. The hospital’s medical smell won’t enter the patients room since an air filter or freshener will be applied to block its smell.

Attachments: Illustrations of the prototype will be used as examples of the project such as benchmarking. Different competitors and their products will be mentioned. The final design will include illustration samples and sketch ideas of how the service would look like.

Measures of success: Samples, illustration, case studies, experiments will be shown to the customers about the service or product, which will alternate their ideas on the project and open new wide possibilities.

“This project will help patients heal faster mentally, emotionally, physically since the environment is no longer uncomfortable�.

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Primary Research The primary research includes the usage of observation, personas, surveys, and interviews to explain Dubai Rashid’s Hospital environment and patients experience through the five senses. Each sensory will be discussed individually.

Observation of Public Patient Rooms:

Public patient rooms have an open-door policy. It includes minimum of 6 beds for each patient, which automatically means many individuals are living in the same room. These rooms have a high rate of noise even the hallways near these rooms are loud, causing patients to feel uncomfortable.

Public Patient rooms are bright due to the strong lightbulbs and sunlight from the windows. But, it lacks color in its interior space. The walls and the furniture of these rooms are simply white with no design. It gave of a dull and depressing feeling.

The furniture touch in public patient rooms looked comfortable and uncomfortable. Some patients were unable to relax, because they were still not used to medical beds compared to their home beds. Other patients were rather relaxed and happy to even lay down.

Also, the rooms had a medical smell to it, but it that wasn’t strong. Some of the long-timed patients weren’t affected by it since they are used to it. But, the short visiting patients were uncomfortable because of it.

Observation of Private Patient Rooms:

Private patient rooms have a close-door policy. One individual lives each of these rooms. It is quiet and has a low rate of noise. The patients are able to relax and sleep well leading to fast healing rate.

These rooms are bright due to the strong lightbulbs and sunlight from the windows. But, some of private rooms have light background color depending of the patient’s choice. But, overall it still lacks an actual color that gives the feeling of life, happiness, and healing.

The furniture touch in private rooms are higher in quality than ones in public patient rooms. The bed furniture has a double mattress with a smooth texture, which allows patient’s pain to lessen a bit. But, some furniture in private patient rooms have the same structure and quality as public patient rooms depending on with section it belongs.

Also, the rooms had stronger medical smell to it than public private rooms. I was harder to breath since most private rooms are part of the Intensive Care Unit Department. Some of the long-timed patients weren’t affected by it since they are used to it. But, the short visiting patients were uncomfortable because of it.

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Mutual Observations of Public and Private Patient Rooms:

Both private and public patient rooms have healthy food service, which includes vegetables, Chicken, Lamb, grains, fruits, water, juice, and desserts.

However, the patients don’t seem to like the taste due to lack of flavor and sweetness.

Both private and public patient rooms are cleaned daily, giving a good impression of how important the hospital environment is.

Personas:

Three personas were chosen to show each stakeholder’s different point of views. Each individual had their own part in explaining the effect of Dubai Rashid Hospital’s environment on them through the five senses experience. These personas discuss each person’s personal information, situation and experience with Dubai Rashid Hospital.

Persona A, is a long-timed patient, Maryam.

Persona B, is a primary doctor, Jackson.

Persona C, is Fatma, who is Maryam’s mother.

Persona A

Persona B

Persona C

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Surveys:

Eight surveys were given to Dubai Rashid Hospital patients.

Four were given to long-timed patients and another four to shorttimed patients. They answered multiple choice and short answer questions based of their experience with the hospitals environment through five senses.

This is one survey sample that belongs to a long-timed patient. It mostly explains his emotions and user experience. He wrote that his room was quiet, which means it’s a private room.

The room had a strong medical smell and he felt irritated and uneasy. He explained that the food was healthy, but had a bad taste. Also, he felt depressed due to the colorless room. Moreover, he liked that the hospital room was cleaned every day and the furniture was comfy and relaxing for him. He believed that the hospital could improve its environment experience through giving the food some taste, adding color to the patient rooms, and reducing medical smell in the hospital.

Overall, the four long-timed patients: All agreed: • There is a strong medical smell in their rooms making them feel irritated by it.

• Their rooms are cleaned every day.

• They are given healthy food.

Mostly agreed (3/4): • Furniture touch is comfortable and relaxing.

• Their room interior color is dull and depressing.

• They had a good experience with Dubai Rashid Hospital.

Half agreed (2/4): • Their room is noisy • The healthy food they are given tastes bad.

Mostly liked: • Hospital daily cleanness • Healthy food • Good healthcare service Mostly disliked: • Sharing private bathrooms with two people.

• Dull room interior color.

Overall, the four short-timed patients: All agreed: • Their rooms are cleaned every day.

• Their room interior color is dull and depressing.

Mostly agreed (3/4): • Their room is noisy.

• There is a strong medical smell in their rooms and they feel surprisingly comfortable with it due to the long-time exposure to it.

• The food is unhealthy.

• The furniture touch is comfortable and relaxing.

Half agreed (2/4): • The healthy food they are given tastes good.

• They had a bad experience with Dubai Rashid Hospital Mostly liked: • Hospital daily cleanness.

Mostly disliked: • Slow healthcare service.

• Dull room interior color.

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Both short and long-timed patients believed that the hospital has developed and advanced equipment’s. Also, they both gave many recommendations to improve the hospital’s experience. First, add lively color to the interior patient rooms. Second, improve interior hospital décor and healthy food some taste. Third, reduce medication smell. Fourth, enlarge patient room’s windows to allow more natural sunlight to enter it. Fifth, reduce the level of noise and improve healthcare service in public patient rooms.

Interviews:

In the interview, the doctor mentioned that has been working in the hospital for 6 years, while the research and development hospital manger worked for 10 years.

Both the doctor and the hospital manger agreed that • Public rooms: * Noisy due to high number of patients living in it, causing the patients to feel frustrates the and sometimes unable to sleep. * Smells little of medications. * Dull interior colors in the room, making the patients to feel depressed.

• Private room: * Quiet and not noisy leading the patients to be able to sleep peacefully. * Smells very strong of medications, effecting the short-timed patients more than the long-timed patients. * Some rooms have very light orange color, but the patients still feel gloomy with it.

• Both public and private patient rooms: * Cleaned every day. * Their food is healthy but tastes bad. * The furniture is comfy and cozy, helping the patients to heal faster.

• Hospital technology and equipment’s are highly developed.

• The experience with the hospital’s environment through the five senses affect the patients: * Mentally: they can’t sleep and rest due to high rate of noise in public rooms. * Emotionally: they feel depressed due to the dull interior colors in the patient rooms. * Physically: some new patients are unable to get used to the hospital’s bed mattress material.

• Hospital can improve its interior colors in the patient rooms, reduce noise level in public patient rooms, and give patients more options in choosing their own food.

Thus, after gathering all of the primary research information, a solution was formed to improve patients experience with the hospital’s environment through the five senses.

Aim: Improve Dubai Rashid Hospital’s environment experience by considering the impact of the hospital experience on the visitor’s senses.

Objectives: • Evaluate hospital cleanness and neatness.

• Understand the hospital environment and its interior space.

• Interview the patients about their experience in Dubai Rashid Hospital.

• Investigate innovative and creative ways to advance hospital experience.

• Improve the hospital’s five senses experience in patient rooms.

Doctor/healthcare interview questions (diff in public and private patient rooms): • How familiar are you with the hospitals environment?

• How long have you been in the hospital and under their care?

• What do you feel about/ how do you think it affects the patients: o Hospital noisy environment o Medical smell are you irritated? Is it too much? Are you comfortable with it? o Food service and the food taste. Do you think its health? o The texture of the furniture in the room? Does it feel comfortable when you touch or relax on it? Or is it too rough and uncomfortable? o Is your room dull in color? When you see it do feel relaxed or the opposite?

What is the feeling that is gives you?

• What is your experience with Rashid hospital so far?

• Do you feel like the hospital is clean, neat? Give some examples (private vs public patient rooms).

• What do you like and dislike about the hospital environment and user experience.

And why? Give examples(private vs public patient rooms).

• What do you think about the hospitals technology and equipment’s? and how do you feel about it?

• Why do you think could be improved about the hospital’s experience? Give one example (private vs public patient rooms).

• How do you think these five senses aspects effect the patients emotionally, physically, and mental? Does it help them heal faster? (private vs public patient rooms).

• If you were able to improve these experiences with 5 sense what will you do? (private vs public patient rooms).

Aim: Improve Dubai Rashid Hospital’s environment experience by considering the impact of the hospital experience on the visitor’s senses.

Objectives: • Evaluate hospital cleanness and neatness.

• Understand the hospital environment and its interior space.

• Interview the patients about their experience in Dubai Rashid Hospital.

• Investigate innovative and creative ways to advance hospital experience.

• Improve the hospital’s five senses experience in patient rooms.

Hospital manager interview questions (diff in public and private patient rooms): • How familiar are you with the hospitals environment?

• How long have you been in the hospital and under their care?

• What do you feel about/ how do you think it affects the patients (private vs public patient rooms): o Hospital noisy environment o Medical smell are you irritated? Is it too much? Are you comfortable with it? o Food service and the food taste. Do you think its health? o The texture of the furniture in the room? Does it feel comfortable when you touch or relax on it? Or is it too rough and uncomfortable? o Is your room dull in color? When you see it do feel relaxed or the opposite?

What is the feeling that is gives you?

• What is your experience with Rashid hospital so far?

• Do you feel like the hospital is clean, neat? Give some examples (private vs public patient rooms).

• What do you like and dislike about the hospital environment and user experience.

And why? Give examples (private vs public patient rooms).

• What do you think about the hospitals technology and equipment’s? and how do you feel about it?

• Why do you think could be improved about the hospital’s experience? Give one example (private vs public patient rooms).

• How do you think these five senses aspects effect the patients emotionally, physically, and mental? Does it help them heal faster? (private vs public patient rooms) • If you were able to improve these experiences with 5 sense what will you do? (private vs public patient rooms).

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Solution Brand Identity: Improve hospital environment and user experience through the five senses.

Hospital Five Senses (HFS) is a company that designs hospitals interior space and environment by studying its psychological effect on the user. This company has done many studies explaining that by transforming the hospital interior environment, patients are able to heal faster mentally, emotionally, and physically. HFS has worked and designed for many different cultured hospitals. One of their projects was to modify Dubai Rashid Hospital’s environment through the patients’ five senses. HFS designed Dubai Rashid Hospital based on its culture. It separated the project into two sections: improving public patient rooms and improving private patient rooms. They studied both sections and its patient’s behavior towards their room’s environment. Therefore, HFS came up with a solution.

The solution will address the improvement of Dubai Rashid Hospital’s environment experience by considering the impact of the hospital experience on the patient’s senses, which would eventually increase their healing rate. Thus, leading to patient’s satisfaction.

This solution will benefit client who is Dubai Rashid Hospital by giving its patients a greater experience of its environment. When the patients feel relaxed and happy with the hospital space, they will tend to come to the hospital in future again and again, because they had a satisfactorily experience. This will give the hospital a boost in its reputation, finance, economy, quality, environmental design, and emotional appeal.

Hospital Five Senses

One of Dubai Rashid Hospital problems is the need to improve its environment’s five senses experience for the patients to be able to heal and relax. First, patient rooms are too noisy, especially public patient rooms. Second, they have a strong medical smell especially private patient rooms. Third, the room’s interior color is dull causing the patients to feel depressed. Fourth, the furniture’s touch is rough and uncomfortable to lay on. Fifth, the hospital’s food is healthy, but tastes bad. According to HealthLeaders Media Industry Survey 2013, “Patients satisfaction is the number one priority help patients heal and recover” (Patients experience is not patient satisfaction, n.d.).

FOOD: give patients different types of food with various flavors

COLOR: covert white background to light blue or green or yellow

SMELL: reduce medication smell by Using air purifiers with natural fruit scents (non-chemical) or open the windows to lessen the strong smell

NOISE: reduce noise by sticking silence signs outside the public and private patient room’s door

TOUCH: add double medical mattress and soft bedcover to give the furniture a comfy and relaxing feeling

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“Hospital user experience is all about patient’s satisfaction”.

Therefore, the company Hospital Five Senses brainstormed and discussed a way of remodifying Dubai Rashid Hospital into a hospital with great patient experience. Some of the main transformations are stablished in the hospitals environment through the patient’s senses, which would eventually increase their healing rate and comfort.

Suggestions On How To Improve Dubai Rashid Hospital Environment’s Experience Through The Five Senses

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References About Rashid Hospital‭. (‬n.d‭.). R ‬ etrieved from‭: h ‬ ttps‭://‬www.dha.gov. ae/en/RashidHospital/Pages/AboutRashidHospital.aspx‬‬‬‬ Duffy, B. (2016). Want to improve the patient experience? First you need to fix hospital environment. Retrieved from: https:// medcitynews.com/2016/01/hospital-environment-and-patientexperience/?rf=1 Improving ‘Hospital Smell’ with essential oils and aromatherapy.

(2013). Retrieved from: https://www.air-aroma.com/blog/improvinghospital-smell-with-essential-oils-and-aromatherapy Mahnke, F. (1996). Color, environment, and human response: An interdisciplinary understanding of color and its use as a beneficial element in the design of the architectural environment. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Marberry, S. (1997). Healthcare design (Wiley series in healthcare and senior living design). New York: Wiley.

Patients experience is not patient satisfaction. (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://isqua.org/docs/default-source/education-/isqua-webinar_ november-2014_subashnie-devkaran.pdf?sfvrsn=0 Patients tell me, you wouldn’t serve this food to pigs. (2014).

Retrieved from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2561562/ Patients-tell-You-wouldnt-serve-food-pigs-And-theyre-right-Ahospital-head-chefs-brutally-honest-confession.html

Appendix

These survey papers are part of the primary research section. They were filled by long timed patients. It describes their user experience with Dubai Rashid Hospital environment through the 5 senses.

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These survey papers are part of the primary research section. They were filled by short timed patients. It describes their user experience with Dubai Rashid Hospital environment through the 5 senses.

Dubai Rashid Hospital Environment and Patients Experience

Direct Symptoms

Underlying Symptoms

Patients feel uncomfortable and unable to relax

Patients aren’t healing fast as they are should to be

Direct Causes

Underlying Causes

Patients bad experience with hospital (five senses)

Hospital is unaware of these aspects and their effects on patients

Contributing Factors

Which could lead to depression and the rise of negative feelings

Contributing Factors

It could be because no one told about it or because they don’t understand it

This observation diagram is part of the primary research section. It explains the patient’s experience with Dubai Rashid Hospital environment through the five senses. It includes the causes and symptoms of some of the patient’s negative experience with the hospital.

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