by Oliver Marlow, Director of Studio TILT
Waiting is boring. Attention to how individuals experience their time waiting is welcome, and necessary. It often forms a key part of healthcare design briefs and gives a good impression to users that improvements have been made. It suggests efficiency and productivity, and implies that the user’s time is valuable, since whatever healthcare process is being addressed should take up as little of their time as possible.
With an overall focus on integrated care, particularly for those with multiple conditions, design processes become more complex. This doesn’t necessarily mean waiting times increase. Often, though, when the design response is to reduce that time, an impasse arrives. For example, a complex outpatient pharmacy prescription requires a multitude of statutory and quality control steps. Good design can help them to be done quicker, but they will always need to be done.
This impasse is often seen as a failure of those doing the work. The impact of waiting for the user can be a sense that the system, the people working, and the quality control steps are all intended to frustrate them, to add to their inconvenience. Two mindsets diverge, one which is increasingly angry, alienated, seemingly uncared for, and one that is anxious, rushed and self conscious about the situation. We always hear, not just in healthcare, the phrase ‘sorry about the wait’ before we are told what is happening.
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