top of page
Stor: Hospital Storage System
Rhode Island School of Design
Fall 2019
Mission
The Stor System makes hospitalizations more comfortable through a collection of storage solutions provided by hospitals. This system is designed to increase both accessibility and organization around the bedside environment.
This hospital room organization system provides healthcare facilities with additional tools to aid in improving care and quality of life for patients.
Environment
For patients, the hospital room is where most of the day is spent. Rooms tend to be on the smaller side and can become cluttered after only days of use. Accessibility is the dominant factor when designing for such an environemnt.
Selecting this Opportunity Space
Throughout my life and the lives of may of those I am close to, hospitalizations have been a common occurrence. Talking to those around me who have been hospitalized for long periods of time, I realized that there is an abundance of problem spaces surrounding the hospital room environment.
Mapping the Hospital Care Environment
A high-level understanding of various aspects of patient hospitalizations is a vital step in identifying possible problem spaces and pain-points.
Driving Questions
How can the hospital room environment be improved to provide more accessibility for patients, nurses, and doctors?
How can costs be kept low for the hospital and can solutions be offered free to patients?
What existing products increase accessibility and what specific problem spaces do not have solutions?
Initial Surveys
Using a wide range of participants, surveys were done to gauge hospital stays across many backgrounds.
Patient Insights
A selection of persona cases representing the spectrum of experiences had by interviewed patients.
Patient A
74 Years Old, Hospitalized for Cardiac Surgery
"My room was extremely cluttered with machines and wires everywhere. When I was finally able to get up and go for short walks it was hard to get around."
Patient B
20 Years Old, Hospitalized for Respiratory Infection
"I hate hospital gowns so I always bring a bag of my clothes instead. There is also nowhere to keep anything in the room."
Patient C
43 Years Old, Hospitalized for Gastric Bypass Surgery
"The bed feels extremely different from my bed at home. One of the things I missed was having a night table to keep things on like my glasses or phone."
Patient D
32 Years Old, Hospitalized for Shoulder Surgery
"Hospitals feel too sterile. I like the fact that everything is clean but it feels a bit too depressing at times when I was there even for a few days."
Nurse Insights
A selection of persona cases representing the spectrum of experiences had by interviewed nurses working in hospitals and in long-term care facilities.
Nurse A
Intensive Care Unit
"In the ICU, there are often a lot of machines and equipment around the bed. Depending on the patient, there can also be a fair amount of personal items that get in the way and make it hard to get around."
Nurse B
General Ward
"Patients sometimes like to bring a bag with them if they know they will be staying overnight."
Nurse C
General Ward
"Often patients are too sick or weak to really get out of bed so they have to keep calling us to help grab their things from around the room."
Nurse D
Pediatrics
"Kids tend to bring a lot of stuff. Mostly it's toys and games and if they are able, they like to play. Kids are also messy so their rooms tend to get really cluttered if they are in for a while."
Takeaways
From the surveys and interviews, many different topic were brought up surrounding the hospital room environment. In order to determine a focused direction, 4 main takeaways were gathered.
Hospital Rooms Can Get Cluttered
Rooms where patients stay for longer periods of time tend to become messier as time goes by due to larger quantities of personal items that accumulate.
Moving Around is Often Difficult
Patients tend to want to move around if they are able. The more space they have to move around, the better
Patient Accessibility Needs
to Improve
Patients need a more accessible way to eliminate clutter within hospitals. Rooms become less accessible as clutter increases.
Nurses and Staff Benefit from Increased Accessibility
Hospital staff and nurses work with many patients at a time. Anything to increase staff accessibility will make their jobs easier and the patient experience better.
Personal Items Research
Personal items can be split into four main categories including: valuables and entertainment, clothing, bags, and toiletries. These items vary from person to person and depending on the length of the hospital stay, more items may accumulate.
Existing Products
In order to better understand the specific opportunity space surrounding the hospital bedside environment, existing solutions must be examined. It was found that on the consumer side, there are hardly any hospital-specific bedside storage solutions.
Hanging Bedside Storage Pouches
Provides quick access to smaller items however they are often not compatible with hospital beds.
Toiletry Bags
Portable yet limited storage for larger items. Offers less flexible storage options due to size.
Rigid Tray Table for Lap Use
Allows for a working or eating surface while in bed. Easy to clean yet somewhat difficult to store.
Tablet Holder Pillows
Allows for hands-free us of tablets but has almost no storage.
Larger Bags and Suitcases
Offers a great deal of storage space but takes up a lot of room. They are often difficult to store anywhere but the floor.
Backpacks and Purses
These can be awkward to store in hospital rooms and often contain valuables. They offer good storage themselves yet are not secure in the room.
Hospital-Provided Items
Amenities provided by the hospital to make patients more comfortable during their stay. These differ between hospitals and the quality and variety of items may be better or worse.
Patient Gown and Socks
Razor, Shaving Cream, Toothbrush, and Toothpaste
Gowns allow doctors and nurses to more easily access the patient. Often not very comfortable. Both are very low cost.
Basic amenities that are useful for shorter stays but may not be good for longer hospitalizations.
Soap and Shampoo
These items are often very specific to individual preference and it is likely that for longer visits, hospital provided soap and shampoo are not a good option.
Hospital Room Items
Items and furniture to be used in the hospital room by patients and medical staff. These items do not include items that are brought in the room for only brief periods of time such as portable x-ray machines or sterile trays.
Hospital Bed
The bed is the primary focus of the room and is where the patient will spend the majority of their time. This is a very high cost item.
IV Pump and Pole
Necessary for giving fluids and medications to the patient. Tubes extend out towards the bed to the patient and can become a hazard. This is also a high cost item.
Nightstand
Chairs
Hospital rooms often have chairs for family members or the patient themselves to sit in. Often they are simple, poorly cushioned chairs, but they can be very nice depending on the hospital.
Most hospitals will provide patients with a nightstand or small table beside the bed. This can be difficult for some patients to reach because of the awkward angle in relation to the bed. In addition, nightstands and tables become cluttered easily.
Bedside Table
Allows patients to eat while still in bed. This is a very versatile piece of furniture, however in many cases they are cumbersome to use and hard to clean all surfaces.
Pillows, Blankets, and Towels
These items are basic necessities and are usually changed frequently. Blankets and pillows do not need to be stored and towels already have designated places to store them.
Hospital Beds
Being the most important item in the room and where the patient spends most of their time, the bed is an optimal opportunity space to build on. Beds offer lots of mounting points and are fairly standardized throughout the industry.
Takeaways
Findings from the research can be extrapolated into three main points, each of which need to be taken into account for the solution's placement both in the physical hospital room and the market space.
People Tend to Bring Many Items From Home
In order to feel more comfortable and improve the quality of their state of mind and recovery, people bring items from home.
There is a Lack of Consumer or Hospital-Provided Products
In order to feel more comfortable and improve the quality of their state of mind and recovery, people bring items from home.
Hospitals Like to Keep their Expenses as Low as Possible
Items offered to patients during their hospitalizations are, in many cases, the cheapest option that can be found. Hospitals provide these items as a small courtesy and assume that for longer stays, patients will bring their own personal affects.
Derived Constraints
From the gathered takeaways, design constraints were created to help work the opportunity space into a solution.
1. Storage system that accommodates most common items brought by patients.
2. Must be easy to clean with existing hospital supplies and facilities.
3. Solution must integrate with existing hospital bed architecture in a way that allows for easy access while lying in bed.
4. Must be easily stored in hospital supply rooms and in patient rooms.
5. Modular system that capitalizes on flexibility.
6. System that that is versatile from hospital to hospital.
Concept Development Sketching
Working from the derived constraints, ideation began on ways to tackle this opportunity space. Designs ranged from hard-shell safe systems to soft clip-on bags.
Mounting Hardware
Hard Shell Boxes
Soft Bags with Rigid Holders
Soft Bags
3D Concept Development
Through concept sketching idea generation, a direction of using a soft bad with a hard holder was chosen to pursue. Rough physical models were constructed to get a sense of scale and how much the bags could hold. Adjustments to the size and shape were made quickly, and a final form took shape.
Design Refinement
Focusing more on manufacturability, the design was refined to allow for easy production of both the outer hard shell and the inner bag.
Final Design Concept
The Stor System, comprised of a large and a small storage solution, aims to make hospitalizations more comfortable for patients and allow healthcare workers to do their job more effectively.
Stor Small
The smaller of the two storage solutions, the Stor Small is designed for toiletries and other smaller items. It is ideal for use in the bathroom as there are mesh strips that allow moisture to escape.
1. Soft Storage Bag
- Holds toiletries as well as small items.
- Washable and durable fabric.
- Removed from shell for easy access.
2. Hard Shell
- Holds the soft storage bag in place.
- Lightweight and easily cleaned with alcohol wipes.
3. Bed Rail Clamp
- Holds entire assembly onto the side rails of the hospital bed.
- Assembly to pivot towards the bed, allowing contents to be easily accessed by patients in bed.
- No moving parts, pressure fit plastic clamp integrated into the shell.
Stor Large
The larger of the two storage solutions, the Stor Large is designed for larger items and more bulk storage. Ideal for a week's worth of clothes or even a bunch of activities.
1. Soft Storage Bag
- Holds clothes as well as larger items.
- Washable and durable fabric.
- Removed from shell for easy access.
2. Hard Shell
- Holds the soft storage bag in place.
- Lightweight and easily cleaned with alcohol wipes.
3. Bed Rail Clamp
- Holds entire assembly onto the side rails of the hospital bed.
- Assembly to pivot towards the bed, allowing contents to be easily accessed by patients in bed.
- No moving parts, pressure fit plastic clamp integrated into the shell.
4. Hand Grip
-Makes it easier to pivot assembly for better access from the bed.
User Testing and Validation
Using an adequately sized group of individuals, at-home simulated hospital stays were conducted along with a real-world test in a hospital with a patient. These tests would validate the design and provide a platform for further feedback.
At-home simulated hospital stay testing.
Real world in-hospital testing.
bottom of page