Need for Design Intervention Towards Building Conducive Patient Friendly Intensive Care Units for the Critically Ill in India Nair Poornima Sajive Faculty, Symbiosis Institute of Design, Symbiosis International University, Pune, India Online published on 29 December, 2017. Abstract Hospitals in India are equipped with medical facilities unparalleled compared to that in the west. New equipment is added to hospitals at lightning speed. Least contact methods are being attempted in special surgeries. Specialities are increasing and research in medical science is reaching a pinnacle with private drug companies chipping in for clinical research. Mortality rates in three top rated private hospitals has seen a rise in the last five years (according to two intensivists and one Male Nurse). Despite all efforts to make the humankind free of disease, deaths due to disease are recorded in Intensive care units. Designing care units of Hospitals in India, is ignored. Design detail at System level as design intervention would reduce inconveniences that are encountered by people using the services of the hospital. Patients discharged from ICU, relatives of the diseased and several people connected with hospital have been interviewed. Problems are highlighted by the subjects interviewed, in the hospital the care units. In order to counter some of the highlighted negative aspects of the care units from a design perspective some recommendations are provided with evidence. The care systems in hospitals in India need to treat people holistically in some cases and the business has to empathise with relatives of patients. Top Keywords Alternate Therapy, Care givers, Design Intervention, Healing, Hospital ICU. Top |