About Hospital Discharge Process
The Hospital Discharge Process is a design and research exploration intended to make the process of releasing a patient from the hospital faster and more efficient for the patient and the care team.
The goal is to identify all items that need to be complete before a patient is released and reduce communication gaps between care providers.
industy
Healthcare Technology
role
Insight Gathering / Research
Design Lead
Experience Design / Interaction Design
User Interface / Visual Design
Results
Shadowing Research Insights
User Flows
Sketches
Wireframes
Process
The process started with a list of enhancement opportunities provided by clinical strategist. The team planned to apply features from the physician workflow to all other user types. However I wasn't convinced that what is best for a doctor will also work for a nurse or care manager. So I scheduled meetings with my team and internal stakeholders who other care provider types to discuss and share workflows.
The old Depart Process: Providers do not have the ability to view the documentation they are creating until the end. It's difficult to reference previous notes because they get buried and are sometimes saved over.
These wireframes explore the concept of s split screen for both viewing the discharge documentation and referencing previous notes.
I led brainstorm sessions with stakeholder from different medical disciplines to describe their discharge process.
I recorded stakeholders/subject matter experts from various medical disciplines demonstrate the workflow process.
on site research FINDINGS
I coordinated shadowing visits with several healthcare centers to observe the discharge process first-hand from the perspective of various members of a care team. Through our observations we did validate some initial assumptions but also uncovered a few surprises.
The shadowing visits also identified issues with the poorly formatted patient instructions that patients are released with from the hospital. The most confusing part of the instructions is the medications list. Patients are often confused the language and formatting which leads to non-compliance and a higher readmission rate to the hospital. As a result my team and explored many different ways to structure the medications list so it was easier for patient's to understand. We created several formats of the list and tested it with internal users. Table formats and list with clear legible icons we easiest for people to understand.
This is the medication list as it appears in the application. However when instructions are printed for the patient, the list is jumbled in a poorly spaced and organized blob on the page.
DESIGN CONCEPTS
The onsite visits emphasized the importance of providing the ability for care providers to view the discharge documentation they are creating as they go and be able to easily access and reference previous notes alongside current documentation.
These wireframes explore the concept of s split screen for both viewing the discharge documentation and referencing previous notes.
