You Are Here: Wendy’s Welcome to the ED

We are pleased to announce a special video project we’ve been working on this year, “You Are Here: Wendy’s Welcome to the ED.” Over the past several months we’ve had the great privilege of working with Darcy Daniels, her daughter Wendy Wooden and MGH for Children (MGHfC) on this project, which aims to alleviate patient stress in the pediatric Emergency Department.

After several years of complex medical care as patient at MGHfC, Wendy realized she could use her experience to help other families facing an Emergency Department visit. In 2014 a family friend reached out for advice when her two children were going to be in the hospital and that’s when Wendy, with the help of her mom, wrote “You Are Here: Wendy’s Welcome to the ED.” The narrative helps pediatric patients understand what to expect during an ER visit. After vetting the project with the MGH Family Advisory Council and originally proposing the project as a booklet for kids and families to read when they first arrived, the project goals shifted to a digital format. Without the resources to create a video animation, Darcy reached out to her network, which is where PAYETTE entered the picture.

After learning about the project and the critical need for a resource like this, we dove in to the project. As healthcare architects we can design so much more than physical spaces. This project offered our team an opportunity to stretch the way we think about patient care while delivering a necessary resource to an important healthcare institution in our city.

Drawing on the talents of over 20 people in our firm, this video features originally composed music, photography, time-lapse videography, digitized sketching and voice-over narration by Wendy herself. MGHfC started using the video in the ED just a few days ago and we’re already hearing from the ED doctors and nurses about the power this video has to calm patients and families. It’s been a rewarding journey for us to not only stretch our design and production skills, but also to work on such a worthy tool with MGHfC. Over the next several weeks core team members will share insight into their processes, from inspiration to final production.

Many thanks to Darcy Daniels, Wendy Wooden, MGHfC and the Family Advisory Council for the opportunity to work on this project.

PAYETTE team: Stuart Baur, Brian Carlic, Caitlin Cashner, Leon Drachman, Austin Ferguson, Gordon Grisinger, Dave Hamel, Garrett House, Alan Kawahara, Mike Lee, Parke MacDowell, Justin Miller, Erin Polansky, Scott Rawlings, Karen Robichaud, Dan Smith, Bob Schaeffner, Heather Taylor, Jamie Zhong, Jie Zhang.