Healthcare Odyssey: Improving People's Journey through a Service Design Approach
Vittoria Battaiola
Research shows that individuals' medical experience is strongly correlated with their clinical outcomes (Doyle, Lennox & Bell, 2013), and it is therefore necessary to ensure that it is as positive as possible. This thesis applies the service design approach to a case study of service development to improve people's experience through the emergency department of the Santa Chiara Hospital in Trento.
In specific, the project pays close attention to people suffering from nosocomephobia, a type of PTSD usually caused by a traumatic hospital experience that can hinder medical care (Cheng, Thor, Zhong et al., 2023), to understand their difficulties and enhance their experience within the facility.
The main objective is to learn about the emotional spectrum of those who approach the emergency department, understand how their emotions affect their behavior and communication with medical staff, and translate these aspects into a new service through co- creation with different stakeholders. The design process, the methodologies applied, and the tools used are presented, analyzed, and discussed throughout the thesis.
The outcome of the project consists of phygital deliverables that fit into a facilitating framework for interactions within the hospital environment. These artifacts must therefore support people within the emergency department, enable meaningful communication with hospital staff, and provide clear and trustworthy information that is a source of reassurance for people.