Sharing some of the lessons he learned during his time working at The Walt Disney Co., Jake Poore, founder and president of Integrated Loyalty Systems, delved into the core aspects of creating an ideal user experience during his closing keynote session at the recent Healthcare Design Conference in Orlando, Fla.
 
Poore said that designers are at the forefront of crafting that experience for patients, staff, and visitors alike. “You design the blueprints for a world-class healthcare experience,” he said.
 
"Our job, first and foremost, is to remove the anxiety and fear," he continued, highlighting how oftentimes the healthcare environment is more closely aligned with prisons than hotels. “There is a prison mentality to the way hospitals are run," he said, citing examples like strict visiting hours, how patients are called for their appointments, and even patients being given gowns to wear. "We have to break the paradigm,” he said.
 
To do that, Poore said, we can take a page from Disney's philosophy: It's the people, the product, and the physical environment together that create an ideal experience. Using a quote from Walt Disney–"You can't change people, but if you change the environment that people are in, they will change,"–Poore said it’s critical for hospitals to build an environment that communicates to employees what it’s trying to achieve—what its drivers are, what differentiates it from competitors.
 
Poore highlighted Disney's four "cast member prioritized standards": safety first, courtesy, show, and efficiency. Complemented by the motto "We create happiness," these standards create an environment where employees on every level are working toward achieving those goals.
 
”You design, create, and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it takes people to make that dream a reality."