Trust starts long before the examination

“High spirited” is how project manager Patrick Amarteifio, MD, describes the mood in his team, who made it their mission to see the ISI through the eyes of their patients and introduce improvements to bring the same upbeat energy to the care pathway. “We wanted to introduce a bit of lightness to things,” says Amarteifio. He is well aware that a patient waiting to undergo treatment will experience everything from fear to uncertainty – and even hope. The patient’s surroundings will either intensify these feelings or reduce them. So the multidisciplinary team from Siemens Healthineers focused on designing interiors that would create a positive patient experience from registering at ISI to undergoing the examination itself. “We had the courage to be creative,” says Amarteifio. He explains how the project used unconventional interior designers who were asked to find creative inspiration in the idea of beach, jungle, and underwater worlds.

The jungle is now the children’s area at ISI – but adults also love the cheerful rainforest creatures swinging through the trees. The waiting room for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) appointments is a beach designed to replace thoughts of the narrow tube with feelings of warmth, light, and wide-open spaces. The underwater world in the computed tomography (CT) area creates a sense of weightlessness. “Everyone involved was just full of positive energy,” says Amarteifio, recalling the time spent working on the project at ISI. A master’s student provided support with the first stage: analyzing the status quo in order to produce recommendations for improving the patient experience at ISI. Insights gathered from observations, a patient survey, and a workshop for radiology technologists later provided rich input for the professional plans for the wayfinding system and the design of the waiting and examination rooms.

Armin Muttke and Johanna Seelmann both work as technologists at ISI taking care of patients before and during a CT or MRI examination. They are both delighted with the redesign: “Everything feels more relaxed now,” says Seelmann. She recalls how patients used to wait for their examination in a large communal area. If someone who had arrived later was called for their appointment before others who had been there longer, people would become annoyed – and staff felt the effects of this. MRI and CT examinations are timed differently, so patients are now sent to a dedicated waiting room for their modality. Patients are informed about their scan and fully prepared for the examination in a separate area. “This new arrangement really makes life easier for the team. The waiting rooms are emptier, and patients have fewer concerns to discuss. Everyone is more relaxed,” says Muttke.

Patients find their way to their destination using a color-coded system. After registration, they follow a blue, yellow, or green line on the ground that guides them safely to where they need to be. Previously, the long corridors offered few points for orientation, so staff often had to help worried patients who couldn’t find their way out. “Now we have a clearly marked route, and the institute looks more modern overall,” says Muttke – and hearing someone ask, “Am I supposed to be at the beach?” often raises a smile from fellow patients and staff.

Natural light, good ventilation, and a calm working environment – these are all things that help medical staff to perform at their best.[4] What is more, structural and design elements that target patient well-being can actually have a major impact on how quickly a patient recovers. A comparison of lengths of hospital stay found that patients who have a bed by the window spend roughly 0.43 days less in hospital on average than patients who have a bed by the door.[5]

But is it really possible to measure a patient’s sense of well-being? “Absolutely,” says Professor Hendrik Berth, a researcher in psychosocial medicine at University Hospital Dresden. “There are clear physiological parameters that give us information about it.” These include pulse, blood pressure, heart rate, and detectable stress hormones. “From a psychological perspective, however, we’re more interested in the patient’s own feelings – and to measure those, we can provide a good set of tools and ask the patient to rate how they’re feeling.” Emojis with happy or sad faces can help people to categorize their feelings. A numerical scale with ratings from 1 (completely fine) to 10 (not at all fine) can also help. Within the limits of COVID-19 safety measures, researchers at the hospital are currently investigating the degree to which changing the surroundings improves patient well-being in the context of an MRI or CT scan. “In the field of medical psychology, we spend significant time looking at how we can support patients. And it seems like surroundings do affect patient well-being,” says Berth, who is currently in the middle of his studies. “We’re hoping to get hard data that supports this, but it already looks like good design can make scans demonstrably more pleasant for everyone involved.”

Radiologist Gabriele Hahn, MD, confirms this initial impression. A pediatric radiologist, together with her team she performs MRI scans on 15 to 20 children every day. “The new design has made everything here friendlier and better for the children,” says Hahn. As soon as families enter the pediatric radiology department, they are surrounded by a lively jungle landscape. The children are then allowed to pick a scanner theme, which will be projected onto the MRI system and its surroundings. “We’ve got flower meadows, sounds of the sea, and cartoons,” says Hahn. “Children who have to undergo regular scans choose something different every time. They just love it.”

The results are impressive: “For the scan, it’s important that the child lies as still as possible,” says Hahn. Since children find it easier to lie still if they feel safe, experienced technologists take care to calmy prepare them for “diving” into the MRI scanner. “It’s a very special interaction – and now we can intensify the care and attention we give our patients. This really helps parents and children feel that they are in good hands,” says Hahn.