The First Five

Designing the Front Entrance Experience for St. Paul’s Hospital

The St. Paul’s Redevelopment Project presents an opportunity to re-imagine the future of healthcare and the way healthcare services are delivered to optimize the patient, visitor and staff experience. Through the indicative design process, a concept for the new hospital was established; however, there remained an opportunity to further engage the community in identifying the needs of its core users and generating innovative concepts for the design of the entrance experience.

As part of the Health Design Lab (HDL) at Emily Carr University, we collaborated with the St. Paul’s Hospital redevelopment team on this project, to further explore and consider the patient and visitor experience upon entry into the new hospital.

Titled “The First Five”, the focus of this project was on the first 5 minutes, the first 5 user needs and the first 5 actions upon entry. This project explored questions such as:

What will be the emotional state of people as they enter the facility and how can this be considered in the design of the space and services delivered?

How should people be greeted upon arrival?

Where can technology be used to enable a more efficient experience and where is a more personal touch needed?

What kind of feeling do we want to create for people entering the space?

How can we create an entrance space that is empathetic, human-centered and supportive?