Co-therapy services to enhance patient experience design

The health sector is going through an evolutionary process in which growing attention is paid to the concept of well-being for both patients and all interested parties. In this context, the chapter aims to understand the impact of co-therapy activities, namely ancillary activities that complement traditional medical treatments, on improving and transforming the patient experience during hospitalisation. Co-therapy services can represent a transformative innovation in the healthcare sector but are not widely included in the hospitals’ service design, and more analyses are required. Three studies in different settings are presented to achieve the chapter objective focused on the perspectives of patients, families, healthcare staff and volunteers. The chapter contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the need to include co-therapy activities within the design of health services to enable greater humanisation of health organisations and by identifying the key factors needed to trigger the transformation.