Mayeda Khan
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Experience Strategist
BACKGROUND
MedStar Health Group is the biggest and most comprehensive healthcare system in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan areas. It is composed of 10 hospitals, 9 emergency wards, and 14 urgent care centers. As the biggest healthcare system in the area, it sees 600,000 ER patients walk through their door every year. We were tasked to concept an application to streamline the ER check-in process.
Role
UX Designer
Team
Project Manager
User Researcher
Timeline
4 weeks (2017)
Deliverables
User Research
Hi-Fidelity Wireframes
CHALLENGE
Serving many underrepresented and highly dense neighborhoods, Medstar faces the challenge of overworked staff, limited space, and consistently has one of the highest ER wait times in the area. In order to alleviate these hurdles, we set out to conceive a digital approach to the ER experience.
DISCOVERY
Unfamiliar with the woes of the ER system, we went straight to the source to conduct our initial research. We conducted interviews with nurses, doctors, physician assistants, patients, and caretakers.
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After consulting with a number of doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and patients, we were able to identify 3 key pain points from each side of the ER ward:
Healthcare Practitioner Pain Points
Patients come to ER in lieu of primary care
Patient Pain Points
Long ER wait times
Understaffed ER wards
Lack of transparency on wait times
Not enough space in wards to accomodate all patients
Bottlenecking during the triage process
Through further interviews with intake staff, we were told three main populations were actually going to the ER:
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Uninsured patients
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Patients without a primary care physician
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Organic emergency
"80% of patient cases could have been treated elsewhere."
Erica Lundy, ER Nurse
USERS
After leaving the hospital, my team and I continued to conduct user interviews and surveys with people who had been to the ER in the past year and actual patients at the ER ward to determine the experiences of multiple​ populations. This allowed us to gain insight into the needs of our users and their ultimate goals. We created personas to give us a clearer idea of potential users and identify key touch points and challenges they face during and after their ER experience.
PROCESS
After mapping our user journeys and personas, wireframes were developed in three stages: paper, lo-fi wireframes, and high fidelity designs. For the purpose of our population, wireframes were designed with color to identify how users identified with the visual design. Wires were shown to patients and healthcare practitioners to validate design direction and features.
SOLUTION
WHAT'S NEXT?
After our visit to the ER, it was apparent that mobile technology will only go so far in regards to alleviating ER conditions. User experience doesn't end within the digital space. With that understanding, we identified a few key pain points in the spatial design of the ER. These recommendations were also provided to client in hopes of streamlining hospital experience for patients and medical staff.
