Modernized Healthcare
Overview
Intergy is a complex EHR system, covering many clinical workflows that could occur within a practice.
New healthcare standards including 21c and a growing need to migrate the on-premise application to AWS cloud platform became necessary to capture new customers in the healthcare industry. Our team was tasked with redesigning its legacy application, to ensure it met healthcare standards, improved usability, and incorporate innovations that adapt to many different clinical use cases.
Approach
New and improved features in the product became necessary to catch up with competitors and new integrative healthcare tools.
Existing customers contacted GWH with possible bugs in the application that either created a wall to complete a task or required the users to create an alternative method to completing the task, sometimes incorporating costly third-party software.
The EHR application had a long backlog of customer complaints to resolve but the underlying issues were missed, because they did not fully understand the user’s workflow, and pointed to FAQ's and training guides when problems would arise.
Major issues we identified included:
Guideline Compliance: New healthcare standards including 21c and a growing need to migrate the on-premise application to AWS cloud platform became necessary to capture new customers in the healthcare industry.
Innovation: New and improved features in the product became necessary to catch up with competitors and new integrative healthcare tools.
Usability: Existing customers contacted GWH with possible bugs in the application that either created a wall to complete a task or required the users to create an alternative method to completing the task, sometimes incorporating costly third-party software.
Empathy: GWH had a long backlog of customer complaints to resolve but needed to conduct generative research to discover the underlying issues, in order to empathize with the user’s point-of-view.
Results
Process
I was tasked with implementing the best methods for generative research during the Discovery Phase, as well as executing them. This generative research helped our team not only understand the sources for the customer’s pain points and joy points, but also helped us understand GWH’s overarching business problem. I conducted interviews with users of competitive products, as well as current Intergy customers to understand to compare their sentiments and research areas of innovation to focus on.
The architecture of the app was complex and ambiguous for a new user. To provide clarity for our design team, I created an information architecture of the application, illustrating it's complex structure. This structure provided the basis for any innovations made in the task flows.
With a team of designers, I acted as design lead, conducting exploratory design workshops to solve UX problems, enforcing design library standards, and copy-editing mockups. I created mockups of alternative solutions and tested them with stakeholders and current customers. I designed icons, and helped identify components for Greenway’s design library. The library became an important reference point for design patterns.
I conducted unmoderated usability tests. This including writing test scripts for specific tasks. Based on the results of the usability tests, I created I shared the insights with stakeholders, product owners, and designers. After a quantitative analysis of the usability test results, I examined participants time spent on a task, as well as their verbal reactions and written responses. I created a tagging taxonomy so that I could easily reference and cross-reference their experiences with the feature or product. I tagged the responses, recorded quantitative data patterns, pulled quotes from the tagged responses to understand the user’s opinions and experiences.
Obstacles
The application was complex and stakes were high to get it right, so that the transition from an on-premise, outdated application to a new modernized EHR would be painless and and seamless, with no interruption for the provider and staff's day-to-day workflow.
While consulting and studying the workflow of clinicians, we experienced some conflict of opinion regarding some processes. New electronic healthcare mandates provided us with a roadmap. We held extensive round table discussions with healthcare staff at all levels and consulted with healthcare regulation professionals to understand best practices, and reflected those adjustments in the designs.
Navigation and Usability
Role-based access controls and encryption protocols provide layers of protection against unauthorized access, ensuring compliance with industry regulations such as HIPAA.
Accessibility features have been integrated to ensure compliance with WCAG guidelines, making the application accessible to users with diverse needs. The application now boasts responsive design principles, ensuring seamless usability across devices of varying screen sizes.
Visual Appeal
The interface was designed with the needs and workflows of healthcare professionals in mind, considering the diverse range of users such as physicians, nurses, and administrative staff.
I prioritized simplicity and intuitiveness to make it easy for users to navigate the application, locate information, and perform tasks efficiently. My goal was to minimize cognitive load by using familiar medical terminology and consistent design patterns.
Overall Impact
Through careful analysis of user workflows, redundant steps have been eliminated, and task flows have been optimized to reduce time spent on data entry and retrieval. Innovative data visualization techniques have been employed to present complex medical information in a clear and digestible manner. Quick access features and customizable dashboards empower users to personalize their workspace.