Abstract
Our international study team of health design professionals applied human-centered design methods to compare the COVID recovery experiences of 28 hospitalized and 30 community-managed patients in five hospital-affiliated sites across Canada and the United States. This study identified three drivers of the COVID patient recovery experience — gaps in care; uncertainty (largely driven by unclear or missing information); and isolation and loneliness. An examination of patient responses to these drivers identified six types of supports needed to facilitate healing and recovery: interpersonal, spiritual, information and communication; technology and access, direct healthcare, and basic needs supports. We link the absence, presence, or separation from these supports during recovery to degrees of isolation and loneliness experienced by participants. We conclude with three principles that health system and public health leaders may apply to meet the needs of future people experiencing a public health emergency.
Keywords
Covid-19, human experience, service design, pandemic care
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.816
Citation
Rice, C., Xu, X., Chehab, L., Basapur, S., Jing, S., Molloy, S., Doshi, A., and Erwin, K. (2022) Filling in the gaps: Navigating the human experience of Covid-19, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.816
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Filling in the gaps: Navigating the human experience of Covid-19
Our international study team of health design professionals applied human-centered design methods to compare the COVID recovery experiences of 28 hospitalized and 30 community-managed patients in five hospital-affiliated sites across Canada and the United States. This study identified three drivers of the COVID patient recovery experience — gaps in care; uncertainty (largely driven by unclear or missing information); and isolation and loneliness. An examination of patient responses to these drivers identified six types of supports needed to facilitate healing and recovery: interpersonal, spiritual, information and communication; technology and access, direct healthcare, and basic needs supports. We link the absence, presence, or separation from these supports during recovery to degrees of isolation and loneliness experienced by participants. We conclude with three principles that health system and public health leaders may apply to meet the needs of future people experiencing a public health emergency.