EVIDENT

How does the spatial design of emergency rooms influence interactions between medical staff, and what measurable effects does the quality of communication have on job satisfaction, the frequency of burnout, staff turnover and patient care? Emergency rooms are central points of contact in hospital environments, and understanding these relationships is key to evidence based and people-oriented future designs.

Planners of emergency rooms face the major challenge of optimally supporting face-to-face communication (F2F communication), minimising interruptions and, at the same time, protecting patient privacy. F2F communication refers to synchronous social interaction between people who are in the same place – through language or non-verbal communication. Despite the great importance of this topic, there are still only a few studies that show how F2F interactions are influenced by the design of emergency room spaces; for example, by the visibility and accessibility between individual rooms, by the complexity of the spatial arrangement and by the layout of the functional rooms, which influence the movement patterns of medical staff.

The objectives of the interdisciplinary study are

• To demonstrate how the spatial design of emergency departments affects F2F interactions
• To link F2F interactions with communication, collaboration and quality of care outcomes
• To develop a digital design tool that predicts how the spatial design of emergency departments affects F2F interactions and outcomes
• To use this tool to help design the emergency department at the University Hospital of Zurich

Work packages WP

• WP0: Project management
• WP1: Analysis of the spatial design of emergency departments in the Swiss healthcare system
• WP2: Recording the effects of the spatial design of emergency departments on the dynamics of F2F interactions and linking them to outcomes in the areas of communication, collaboration and patient care
• WP3: Development of evidence based simulation tools for the human-centred design of emergency departments
• WP4: Evidence based co-design of emergency departments for better communication, collaboration and care

The three multi-stakeholder co-design workshops in WP4 will be held in the SCDH's extended reality simulation area and co-moderated by the SCDH.