Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips has announced that it has received a coveted gold-level ‘Touchstone Award’ from the Center for Health Design* for the Ambient Experience behavioral health rooms it co-developed with Children’s Medical Center Dallas (Dallas, TX, U.S.) and social solutions software company Recornect (Eindhoven, the Netherlands). This unique behavioral health experience solution, which humanizes mental health care delivery in the hospital’s emergency department (ED), combines a resilient touchscreen interface, lighting, sound, video projection and therapeutic content to de-escalate patient behaviors that impact patient and staff safety. By allowing staff to connect with patients in new and interactive ways, it also helps deliver therapy more quickly.
“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an increase in the amount of young people feeling extremely sad about their lives. Instead of sitting in an emergency room for days with nothing to do, which can worsen their condition, Philips’ solution now gives them the chance to really make it their own space. In addition, our staff are now even more comfortable interacting with patients, regardless of the patient’s age or condition,” said Geneva Burnap, Senior Director, Emergency Services at Children’s Health.
“Coming from the Center for Health Design, an organization founded on the vision of creating healthcare facilities that promote healthier environments for patients and staff, today’s Touchstone Award has a very special meaning for Philips,” said Sean Carney, Chief Design Officer at Philips. “Using our human-centered design approach we are able to help improve the patient and staff experience, calm behavioral health patients so they can be treated better and more quickly, ultimately improving outcomes and reducing the cost of care.”
Today’s Touchstone award follows a range of other awards received by Philips for its behavioral health room solution. These include an ‘IDEA 2022 Gold Award -Medical & Health’ from the Industrial Designers Society of America, an ‘Innovation by Design Award 2022’ from Fast Company, and a winner ‘Health & Wellness Award’ from Core77. In March 2022, the solution also received an honorable mention in Fast Company’s ‘World Changing Ideas 2022’ list.
In addition to Children’s Medical Center Dallas, Ambient Experience behavioral health rooms have also recently been installed in the emergency department of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health (Oklahoma City, OK, U.S.).
Human-focused innovation
Co-development of the Ambient Experience behavioral health rooms for Children’s Medical Center Dallas was led by Philips Experience Design, a dedicated group within Philips that works collaboratively with clinicians, patients, and consumers to pinpoint issues, define opportunities, translate insights, and co-create solutions that improve the patient and staff experience. The group combines multiple specialists in the design of spaces, software, services, and multimedia content in order to create human-focused innovations that offer hospital patients and staff an engaging and pleasant experience. Their work can be applied to virtually any hospital setting – from radiology rooms, cath labs, and ORs, to preparation and recovery areas, reception areas and waiting rooms.
This human-focused design approach focuses on fulfilling four interlinked objectives – providing patients with the physical and emotional comfort they need; supporting staff-patient contact and communication; actively involving patients in their care; and optimizing working environments and departmental efficiency. Reducing patient anxiety by providing physical and emotional support enables better patient-staff communication, leading to improved patient cooperation, satisfaction, and loyalty. Actively involving patients in their care leads to a greater sense of empowerment and better therapy compliance. Operational efficiency improvements free up time for clinicians to focus on their patients, potentially leading to more personalized care and better patient outcomes. All these benefits combine to enhance the staff and patient experience, helping improve patient satisfaction scores, reduce staff burn-out, and increase staff retention.
For more information on Philips Ambient Experience behavioral health rooms at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, watch the webinar.
