Auckland City Hospital

Auckland City Hospital is the largest hospital in New Zealand, as well as one of the oldest medical facilities in the country. Run by Auckland District Health Board since 2001, this 710 bed hospital is located in the suburb of Grafton, east of the CBD.

 Unique in the healthcare sector is the Design for Health and Wellbeing Lab project.  Embedded within the hospital, the team at the lab works on diverse patient-centred projects that place the experience of the patient and their loved ones at the forefront. 

Auckland City Hospital asked ID-LAB to help them create a better understanding of the state of their wayfinding system, and what consequences this had for the patient experience. ID LAB suggested to involve DHW Lab practitioners in the process because of their intimate knowledge of the hospital campus.  ID-LAB in turn could teach DHW Lab how to think about wayfinding specific issues. Three strategists from ID-LAB together with three DHW Lab team members spent two weeks walking the site, talking to staff, patients and visitors to develop a thorough gap analysis and a number of staged recommendations which implemented the new paradigms. 

 Part of this new thinking has been implemented to great success.