Royal Hallamshire Hospital (RHH)

The NIHR Sheffield Clinical Research Facility (CRF) located at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital site offers:

• a dedicated reception and waiting area with complimentary hot drinks 

• an en-suite investigation room

• a treatment room

• 2 single bedrooms

• a fully equipped 4 bedded bay area with nurses' station

• 3 consultation rooms

• a patient kitchen

• an on-site sample handling laboratory

Over the years, we have been developing our partnership with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals (STH) and University of Sheffield (UoS) to support the delivery of multiple research studies on dementia. We learned that the environment is important to patients living with dementia and that small changes can go a long way to reducing stress and confusion.

Many of our patients attend appointments that can mean that they spend several hours in our unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital (RHH) so a welcoming space with clear signage and comfortable seating was a priority.  In 2019, the Sheffield Hospitals Charity agreed to provide funding to support with the refurbishments required to ensure our reception area was dementia-friendly.

Once funding had been secured, we met with a wide variety of people and teams to discuss how we could best ensure that our reception was as dementia-friendly as possible. This included:

• Yorkshire & Humber Dementia Patient and Public Involvement Panel 

• Clinical Research & Innovation Office (CRIO)

• Lead Dementia Practitioner Team at STH

• Dementia colleagues from across STH and UoS

• Arts Coordinator at STH

• STH Estates Team

Once discussions had taken place and we knew how to ensure we met dementia-friendly requirements for our reception area, the work commenced. This included:

• New flooring in a colour that was contrasting to the wall colour

• Door frames; those that we don't want patients to enter were painted the same colour as the walls (eg staff areas), and those that are for patients to enter were painted in a contrasting colour

• Removing notices and signage to keep walls clutter-free

• Adding different types of seating

• Adding dementia-friendly clocks and signage, which use pictures as well as words

• Providing something for people to look at in reception, eg artwork, but nothing too abstract

• Removing the mirror and using contrasting colours in the patient toilet

We are delighted with the results as the area is now a bright, welcoming space. It is free from clutter, with clear signage. The feedback that we have received about the changes that we made shows that our research participants are as happy as we are with the new, improved reception area!