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Table 5 Themes in free text comments on the booth

From: A mobile swabbing booth to address Singapore GPs’ concerns about swabber protection: human-centred design during the COVID-19 pandemic

Theme

Sub-theme

Examples

Gloves (35)

Prefer to swab without long gloves [9]

“I cut off the hands of the gloves as it was time consuming and difficult to use with the gloves”

Wrong size [7]

“supplied gloves too small. Not used as a result.”

Not touch-sensitive enough [6]

“glooves [sic] thick and lac [sic] ‘feel’”, “hand gloves are too stiff”

Generally hard to use [6]

“The full length rubber glove that came with booth hard to use”

Tear easily [5]

“Some difficulty applying gloves onto the booth - the gloves tear easily”

Hard to insert/remove hands [4]

“the gloves are too rigid, VERY hard to even get my hands in, granted that I have big hands, size 8

Slippery [3]

“The gloves are slippery and makes handling poor.”

Hard to change gloves [1]

“Gloves that can be easily fitted and changed”

Accommodating different-sized users [20]

Height & restrictiveness of glove port [16]

“Booth is not user friendly as there is a restriction in terms of height due to the fixed location of the hand glove position. it restricts the height of both the swabber and patients”

Could not swab sitting/wheelchair patients [6]

“it is not wheelchair or elderly friendly.”

Cubicle too small or short [2]

“however, the top of the booth is too low for Caucasian patients”

“For a ladies [sic] frame it’s a good fit but not for the larger built guys”

Dimensions [19]

Too bulky/wanted foldable [10]

“Try to design a foldable one.”

“no need to be so bulky and tall”

Patient cubicle dimensions [3]

“Too far for patient. Patient can move away during swab.”

Too heavy [3]

“heavy to push in and out of the clinic after every session”

Miscellaneous [19]

Want it more enclosed [6]

“There is no “door” to total close patient in so to ensure the aerosol particles are contain within the booth…”

Enhance places to put things [5]

“Put a ledge on patients’ side so the things less likely to drop”

“compartments to put disinfectants and swabbing materal [sic]”

Others [8] – 2 or fewer comments per theme

“Difficult for patient to hear me while swabbing - I bought a mic and speaker set to overcome this”