Being in the hospital as a patient or visiting someone undergoing medical care can be a stressful experience. However, you can upgrade your patient experience by making your medical facility more patient-friendly, especially for the youngest patients. Creating positive distractions for both patients and their families and friends can lead to an overall hospital experience improvement.
For young children stuck in hospitals, positive distractions are more than just a spirit booster—they can completely change a child’s outlook. See how Dimensional Innovations can help you provide positive distractions to your patients.
Positive Distractions to Improve Patient Experience
When young children are hospitalized, it can be especially challenging to keep their spirits high. Not only are they sick, but they are also missing out on time in school, playing with friends, and just being a kid. More and more hospitals are working hard to transform the traditional hospital experience and replace it with something spectacular for these young patients.
Positive distractions are made with the sole intention of eliciting positive feelings from patients and providing them something that holds their attention without causing additional stress, both mental and physical. These positive distractions can come in many forms, such as imagery, music, digital interactives, videos, and more.
For some existing clients, we have worked to build engaging interactions for children, such as games, that allow them to play despite being stuck in the hospital. The University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital wanted to create an immersive technology theater that included interactive games that helped children transition from being confined to a hospital bed to getting back out in a public setting.
The immersive theater was made to allow children of all different ages and abilities to use it. With Microsoft Kinect technology, we helped create two interactive video game experiences that are uplifting and stimulating.
In our work with Connecticut Children’s Medical Center Infusion Room, we worked with Tecton Architects to create an interactive game that patients can access from a cellphone or tablet. The “Wilderverse” is a game that allows users to create a custom avatar and explore a virtual outdoor world, which can be seen on multiple curbed digital OLED screens throughout the treatment area.
At Dimensional Innovations, we know that positive distractions can be essential to keeping spirits up for those who are stuck in the hospital, especially when visitors are infrequent. As an experiential design firm, our team is full of pros at coming up with new, exciting ideas! If you are thinking about incorporating positive distractions at your hospital or medical facility, contact us today to learn more!