Designing a pleasant waiting area for the gastrointestinal endoscopy unit based on subjective experiences and needs of the Japanese people

An endoscopy unit refers to a dedicated area where medical procedures are performed with endoscopes, which are cameras used to visualize structures within the body, such as the digestive tract. There is a lack of studies about designing such a unit. Therefore, this study attempted to evaluate the waiting space design of the endoscopy unit, and identify the problems which the patients and the medical staff meet there. We focused on what the patients hope from their endoscopy experience. For care to be patients centered, we should respect patients’ views on how they wish to be managed, see them as partners in shared healthcare decision making—the basis of “no decision about me without me”. The authors discussed the following: usability and attractiveness of space. To carry out this study, different design methods were used to capture people’s subjective experience, including an emotional evaluation method which is called Kansei sheet.