Lessons from Disney: Sheikh Khalifa Medical City

3
HOSPITAL BUILD & INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE ISSUE 3 2014 030 Paediatrics lobby SHEIKH KHALIFA MEDICAL CITY LESSONS FROM DISNEY By: Elin Boyd, Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions, Dubai, UAE

Transcript of Lessons from Disney: Sheikh Khalifa Medical City

HOSPITAL BUILD & INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE ISSUE 3 2014030

Paediatrics lobby

SHEIKH KHALIFA MEDICAL CITY

LESSONS FROM DISNEY

By: Elin Boyd, Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions, Dubai, UAE

031FEATURE DESIGN

www.hospitalbuildmagazine.com

In a conference room in New York City, a visioning session was held with more than a dozen individuals representing the client, end-users and design team for the new 3,000,000ft2 Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) in Abu Dhabi. Gathered to establish the project’s guiding

principles, one wall of the room was filled with words and phrases ranging from ‘sustainable’ and ‘patient-centred care’ to ‘efficient’, ‘iconic’ and ‘future-proof ’. When the term ‘Disney Concept’ was raised by one of the team members, an engaging conversation led to terms like ‘on stage-off /off-stage’ and ‘patients as guests’. Making their way onto the wall, they became part of the road map that would guide the design of Abu Dhabi’s flagship medical campus. Today, with preparations underway for the building’s ground breaking, SEHA – the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, knows that their new facility’s design has been informed by a thoughtful and wide-ranging creative process”, says Scott Habjan AIA, Associate Director at Skidmore Owings and Merrill in New York and Senior Designer of the SKMC project as he shares his insights and thought process when designing Abu Dhabi’s new flagship healthcare facility – The Disney Way.

THE DISNEY CONCEPTHealthcare organisations are successfully adopting best practice from outside industries; take the Toyota Production System for example that introduced Lean processes to hospitals. Or simulation training, something that the aviation industry pioneered and is now used in medical universities the world over. So, what can hospitals learn from ‘the happiest place on earth’ – Walt Disney World?

FIVE CORE CONCEPTSFive core philosophies have made Disney successful: leadership excellence, people management, quality service, brand loyalty, and creativity and innovation, all relevant to any hospital or healthcare facility today. By applying the Disney approach, or Disney’s ‘chain of excellence’, to all areas of healthcare, focusing less on the operational and more on the patient experience, brand loyalty and by inspiring leaders and motivating employees, you can develop a competitive edge to your hospital, but with it, consistently exceed expectations and drive a reputation for excellence. How can you put a bit of ‘magic’ in to your hospital? è

General hospital lobby

Women’s hospital lobby

LESSONS FROM DISNEY

IN SHORT

l Leadership excellence, people management, quality service, brand loyalty, and creativity and innovation are the core philosophies of the Disney brand

l The term on-stage/off-stage was coined by Disney and can be used for healthcare workers too l Treat patients as guests and you will have a create a loyal

guest that will do their best to spread the word about your facility.

All images © SOM

HOSPITAL BUILD & INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE ISSUE 3 2014032

PATIENTS AS ‘GUESTS’At Disney, customers are ‘guests’. Hospital leaders must not only engage with patients as consumers, but also on a personal level, as ‘guests’. Habjan explains that since hospitality is such an integral part of Arab tradition, applying this approach at SKMC was natural. “From the campus edge to the separate hospital lobbies (General, Women’s and Paediatrics, each tailored to their guests), SKMC is designed as an inviting place intended to inspire confidence while making patients and their families comfortable and welcome. It achieves this by balancing a forward-looking architecture with the warmth of nature and hospitality-inspired furniture and materials” .

Disney also seeks to provide their guests with not only a service, but instead, an experience. “At SKMC, the objective was to create an environment that would optimise the positive role that design can play in shaping both patient experience and outcomes. Two major spaces of the medical city, one interior and one exterior, exemplify this”, Scott explains. “The ‘Town Centre’ provides a concentration of amenity spaces such as retail, cafes, education, prayer rooms and activity areas for children at the heart of the facility. These ‘happy distractions’ infuse the medical setting with more of the everyday, reducing the anxiety that often accompanies a visit to a medical facility and changing the perception of the healthcare experience. ‘The Common’ is a shaded five-hectare oasis on the roof of the diagnostic and treatment platform. This unexpected jewel, along with the medical city’s numerous courtyards and hanging gardens, places the calming effects of nature at the centre of the healing environment”.

Other ways to create a positive experience would be to ask nurses and other staff to use details collected from patients to make their daily interactions feel more personal. Which flavour ice cream does the 5-year old oncology patient prefer; or what do they like to watch on television? Disney has gone digital and now use MagicBands, radio-frequency identification-enabled bands for park admission, hotel room keys, and personal and credit card information. Could the same principle be applied to patient ID bracelets? The question hospital managers need to ask themselves is: How do we create loyal patients (guests) that will come back to your facility and recommend it to others?

ON-STAGE/OFF-STAGEIn order to create a memorable experience for their guests, Disney pioneered the concept of on-stage/off-stage behaviour. Disney manages the environment and the behaviour of their employees in every single detail. The environment is clean and orderly, employees are happy, courteous

and helpful. Just like guests at Disney, patients are paying a hefty price for their care, but the difference between a guest at Disney and a patient in a hospital is that the patient is often anxious, worried and maybe frightened, and will, to an even higher degree, need to be shown compassion, respect and a friendly face. At Disney ‘on-stage’ behaviour would be expected whenever staff is in sight or earshot of guests. In a hospital this could translate to areas such as patient rooms, lifts, eating areas and hallways. Examples of ‘off-stage’ behaviour could include personal conversations; expressions of anger and frustration and other activities that could give the patient a negative impression or make them feel that they’re not important.

Habjan explains: “Like Disney World, the guest areas of SKMC are built above an expansive service level where staff, materials, and logistics circulate unimpeded and out of the public view. At this basement level, service vehicles access a central loading dock via a tunnel. The dock connects to a logistics loop that is travelled by electric vehicles and connects to a network of service elevators. These elevators, in turn, transport food and supplies up to the multiple floors of the medical city where they are discretely distributed. An extensive pneumatic tube system transports dirty linens and waste. This vertical integration and clear separation of service and guest areas creates a safer, more orderly and hospitable facility. In addition, there is dedicated parking for staff, building entrances, lounges and a cafeteria, providing them with ample ‘off-stage’ space to move freely about the medical city and relax out of the sight of guests”.

WHAT’S THE SECRET? Disney World is willing to invest time and money in earning the dedication of employees. In the end, it is the employees who make or break the success of a business, or a hospital. Investing in the happiness of all hospital staff, from porters to surgeons, means providing them with the motivation to create a memorable experience for the patients. Job satisfaction often translates directly to how employees treat patients and their families, and the best part is that it’s relatively easy to achieve through simple means.

From the earliest stage, Scott Habjan and his team, with support from the client, designed the medical city to create an environment that will support the staff in their efforts to optimise the positive impact the physical environment can play in the healing process: “Ultimately, the most crucial component in SKMC’s efforts to benefit from Disney’s lessons will be in the hands of the staff themselves. It is their hospitality and countless ‘on-stage’ interactions with patients, families and other visitors that will most impact their guests’ experiences”.

The ‘Common’