A&E Design Challenge: Impact Evaluation Summary

Working with designers and the NHS, the Reducing violence and aggression in A&E: Through a better experience Design Challenge sought to address non-physical aggression and hostility towards staff by improving the A&E experience.

A multi-disciplinary design team led by PearsonLloyd produced three design solutions: The People solution, The Guidance solution and a design toolkit.  

The Guidance and People solutions were installed and piloted at two A&E departments: Southampton General Hospital and St George’s Hospital, London. A comprehensive evaluation was carried out by Frontier Economics and ESRO to test their impact which found:

• 75% of patients said the improved signage reduced their frustration during waiting times
• Threatening body language and aggressive behaviour fell by 50% post-implementation
• For every £1 spent on the design solutions, £3 was generated in benefits

Download the full evaluation report

Hear Tom Lloyd and Julian Lousada of PearsonLloyd on the design solutions
Hear Rebecca Nash of ESRO on the insights gleaned from the evaluation
​Hear Mike Ridge of Frontier Economics on the evaluation findings and methods