University Hospital entrance
Throughout the 12-month product development stage, PictoComm™ was tested on a variety of wards at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust. These tests, which helped to refine the content and illustrations, were conducted with adolescent, elderly, and stroke and dementia patients.
Feedback was also sought from hospital staff and the Patient’s Council, an advisory group of medical professionals and volunteers, who acknowledged the need for this tool and gave it their full support. External organisations, including the Grapevine Centre, which helps people with learning disabilities, also endorsed it.
Member of the Patient Council: “My wife has been an inpatient and had difficulty communicating at first. This would have been helpful.”
Grapevine support worker: “The book is very good. Excellent selection of pictures which are very clear.”
The testing phase also included a survey of 100 people from the following groups:
- High school children
- Members of a retired group
- Employees from local businesses
- Students from an English as a Second Overseas Language (ESOL) course
- Residents of a private care home
CDS and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust tested whether people were able to understand each of the pictures without the use of accompanying words. The results of the survey showed that 95% of the people surveyed thought that the illustrations were clear and easy to understand.
Download graphic representation of the survey results (PDF).