District Hospitals Redesign | Uttar Pradesh Health Systems
Description
The Uttar Pradesh Health Systems Strengthening Project (UPHSSP) aims to improve the efficiency, quality, and accountability of healthcare delivery in Uttar Pradesh, India. The project, supported by the World Bank, focuses on strengthening the state's health department's management and systems capacity.
DesignLab studied the systems of ten district hospitals across Uttar Pradesh in order to design a scalable model for processing patients in the OPDs and ERs.
Credits
Indian Institute for Human Settlements DesignLab
Role
Service Designer
Duration
2018 - 2020
In Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, there is a paucity of secondary and tertiary healthcare. Therefore, district hospitals in cities across the state cater to high volumes of patients that travel from up to 200 kilometres away for these healthcare services.
Patients availing of these services have varied levels of literacy and speak many different languages. These factors make the delivery of healthcare extremely challenging high-volume hospitals across the state.
The main factors leading to patients spending an ungodly amount of time in these hospitals were:
1. Difficulty with communication:
Patients loop around meeting multiple doctors unrelated to their cases
2. Ad-hoc spatial layout of service
Poor spatial planning in large hospital layouts lead to patients spending too much time trying to find their way around
3. Poor Signage
Signage in English and Hindi was confusing and lacked a reliable and adaptable system
At the filter clinic, they meet with senior nurse or a junior doctor who enquires about their ailments and makes notes
Along with extensive spatial rearrangements, DesignLab designed and proposed a filter clinic system to reduce:
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1. the time patients spend in the hospital
2. the number of unrelated patients specialist doctors meet
​​​Patients are registered at the entrance.
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They then stamp the sheet with a coloured ring which corresponds to a particular department zone of the hospital and in it, they write the room number that the patients needs to visit next ​
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Signage using this visual language leads patient to the department zone they need to go to.
This system relies on colours and numbers, making it simple for all users to navigate.
Using only room numbers allows for expansion and adaptability as the hospitals' teams grow and change.