DESIGN CORRELATES OF PATIENTS' TRAVEL EXPERIENCE AND SATISFACTION IN THE HOSPITALS OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

Understanding patients' experience is important for designing patient centered healthcare environments. Patients get their first impressions of the healthcare experience from the environment, which may affect their healthcare expectations even before receiving any services. Studies on patients' satisfaction have shown that the physical environment of hospitals can directly or indirectly affect patients' experience and the perceived quality of care. Very few of these studies, however, show how environmental variables affect patients' experience and satisfaction in wayfinding situations in hospitals. Even fewer studies look at this issue in the hospitals of developing countries, where the quality of care is a big concern. Therefore, this study focuses on patients' experience in wayfinding situations in the hospitals of Bangladesh. The study uses data collected from 349 male and female patients in the outpatient departments of six regional hospitals of Bangladesh. The data include 180 hours of field observation of wayfinding behaviors over a period of six weeks, patients' interviews using a pre-coded questionnaire, and the floor layout analysis that included the measurement of actual route distance, travel distance, and spatial network distances. The findings of the study suggest that patients' travel experiences may depend on patients' interpretations of a situation based on psychological processes, social factors and the environmental variables of the settings. Among the environmental variables that seem to have affected patients' experience and satisfaction more in the outpatient departments of Bangladeshi hospitals are included the identification and directional signage elements, the location of information desks, and the proximity of necessary functions. These findings should help hospital designers and administrators make hospitals more patient-friendly in Bangladesh and elsewhere.