Accident & Emergency Project Wins Top Award from IDSA

The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design collaborated as part of a multidisciplinary team led by PearsonLloyd in a national initiative launched by the Department of Health and the Design Council.

The project generated a number of design propositions that help improve the A&E experience for patients, visitors and hospital staff, and it won a Silver Award for Social Impact Design in the IDSA’s 2013 International Design Excellence Awards. (IDEA).

Violence and aggression towards staff and patients in emergency departments is a common problem in the UK that costs the NHS up to £69m annually. The project team collaborated with three different hospital trusts across England in a co-design process in order to address the problem through retrofit solutions that focus on prevention and avoiding stressful situations from escalating.

The outputs of the project were distilled in three areas. ‘Guidance’ is an information and communication system designed to keep patients informed about their process at every stage, while ‘People’ aims to equip staff with the necessary tools and training to identify potential conflict situations, to defuse them promptly and help them learn from their peers’ experiences

Finally, an A&E Toolkit provides guidelines for commissioners and decision makers in order to help them improve the A&E experience in their own hospital.