Scarlett McNally: Designing patient centred clinics around space, time, and staff

I was recently asked to think about the layout of some new clinic rooms in a hospital. Each had a desk, couch, and computer monitors, but this task requires more than the skills I gained as a parent rearranging Lego or dolls’ houses. Our environment dictates how we work. Designers plan our clinics around the sanctified model of the confidential one-to-one patient consultation. But seeing clinics as a series of consulting rooms off a corridor reduces the potential for teamwork, efficiency, and peer support. I’ve been an orthopaedic surgeon for 30 years. It really is the best job in the world, and I hope that it’s given me wisdom about how to design and run clinics. But I’m now exhausted and over-running with a half day clinic of 18 patients, despite reading electronic notes in advance. This wasn’t …