Healthcare Design - February 2017 - 14

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heading home. The firm's in-house talent provided everything from originally composed
music and photography to digitized sketches,
including a character of Wendy in her likeness.
They also helped coach her through a recording
session so she could narrate the video.
During the nine-minute video, the animated
character of Wendy is shown with a backdrop of
still images and time-lapse videos of ED spaces
as she talks about things like the layout of the
unit, furnishings and equipment in the exam
room, and what it's like to get lab tests. The project made its debut in October 2016 and is displayed on a TV in the waiting room, by child life
specialists on a tablet, and on the hospital's YouTube page. "It's a well understood phenomenon
that the reduction of stress and the provision of
positive distractions have a direct, favorable,
and measurable effect on the length of patient
stays and the overall outcomes experienced by
pediatric patients," Baur says. "This project is an
innovative application of technology to achieve
those goals through patient education delivered
in a format that both children and adults can
connect with and be entertained by."
Child life specialists at the hospital have told
the firm that kids say the video is helpful in explaining the care process and that it's "cool"
that someone their age was involved in creating it.
For the firm, the project offered an opportunity to think differently about designing for care
delivery. "Architects are constantly working to
create physical environments that are tuned to
support a wide range of human needs and emotions," Baur says. "We're uniquely capable of using our expertise that comes from working in the
media of human emotion to create something
that soothes in a time of stress and that educates
in a moment of uncertainty."-Anne DiNardo

HCDMAGAZINE.COM

FEBRUARY 2017

IMAGES BY PAYETTE, © PAYETTE

ESIGN FIRMS SPEND a lot of
time creating positive distractions in patient rooms,
waiting spaces, and respite
areas, all in an effort to reduce stress and create welcoming environments for
patients and families. In
pediatric facilities, those efforts are especially
meaningful and can range from child-friendly
artwork and graphics to interactive play sets
and virtual reality experiences. Recently,
Payette (Boston) embarked on a project that
helped stretch the firm's approach to these
strategies as well as its understanding of the
value of patient education.
The project began as the brainchild of 12-year- In "You Are Here: Wenold Wendy Wooden, a patient at MassGeneral dy's Welcome to the ED,"
an animated character of
Hospital for Children (MGHFC) in Boston, Wendy Wooden, a patient
with a complex medical history resulting in
at MassGeneral Hospital
for Children in Boston,
long stays at the hospital. A couple of years
ago, a family friend reached out to Wendy and helps kids understand
the treatment spaces and
her mom, Darcy Daniels, for advice on preparequipment they might encounter during their visit.
ing for a hospital visit. The young patient was
inspired to share her knowledge and experiences and decided to write a short narrative
to help familiarize young patients and their
families with what they might face inside the
ED to alleviate some trepidation. She worked
with her mother to write "You Are Here: Wendy's Welcome to the ED" and teamed up with
MGHFC's family advisory council to publish
the story as an educational booklet for families
to read when they first arrived at the hospital.
However, after the ED was renovated in 2015,
the hospital decided
to go paperless and
didn't want to pursue
the printed project.
While providing the
material in digital format was considered,
the resources necessary to create a video
animation weren't
PAYETTE TURNED WENDY'S
available. That's when
STORY INTO A SHORT
Payette stepped in.
Stuart Baur, an as- CARTOON THAT WALKS KIDS
sociate principal at
THROUGH THE ED.
Payette, knew Darcy
Daniels and heard
about the situation. Baur reached out to his coworkers, and more than 20 people stepped up to
volunteer more than 1,500 hours over 10 months
to turn Wendy's story into a short cartoon that
walks kids through the ED, being admitted, and

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Healthcare Design - February 2017

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