In the recent This Week Health webinar, Jill McCormick, EVP of Design and Product Development at Pixel Health, and Daniel Small, Vice President of Digital Services at Hartford HealthCare, discussed the challenges of reimagining digital and physical spaces and shared insights on applying human-centered design methodologies to create a world-class patient experience.
This article provides background on the discussion, summarizes the current issues, and poses several key questions that were answered in the webinar.
Understanding the approach
Built for Care focuses on creating modular, scalable, and flexible healthcare solutions that prioritize purposeful design over reactive integration. The approach starts with understanding the patient experience and building systems—digital, operational, and physical—that intentionally meet the needs of patients and providers.
Recognizing the challenges in improving healthcare user experiences
Healthcare organizations often address operational issues from the inside out, solving problems one at a time in a piecemeal approach. Projects may not deliver the value initially intended, and the overuse of point solutions has led to confusion and over communication. As a result, healthcare providers may spend more time on “service recovery” than on patient evaluation and treatment.
Six key questions
- How are patients perceiving experiences in healthcare?
Jill shared that a study found that 96% of patient complaints are related to service quality. These complaints are just one evidence point that demonstrates the disconnect between what health systems think of the patients’ experiences and what patients actually report experiencing, which can include:
- Fragmented digital journeys with poor communication and follow-up
- The burden of over communication
- An overwhelming number of entry points, making it hard to access care efficiently
- Can you share a successful experience in a patient’s journey?
Daniel described his experience with a companion application that showed patients where their parking spot had been reserved before they arrived at a facility. As a result, patient anxiety was reduced, and more patients were on time for their appointments, which helped the providers keep their schedules. By intentionally tying experiences together, such as parking and appointment reminders, the team helped reduce common friction points. Daniel also shared that he used this data and story as part of a series of vignettes to help drive alignment across his team and organization.
- What mistakes are commonly made in designing healthcare experiences?
Both Daniel and Jill said they had seen organizations choose technologies before defining the desired experience. Often, design, marketing, or IT teams work in isolation to implement one-off point solutions, like appointment reminders or e-check-ins. However, integrating point solutions is difficult, and organizations often fail to consider long-term vision for growth as well as exit strategies for technologies that become outdated or no longer meet the organization’s goals.
- How do organizations design better healthcare experiences?
Jill discussed her team’s methodology, which starts with understanding the patient and provider experience, rather than starting with a technology. Other tips included:
- Define what you want patients/providers to feel and accomplish to surface technical needs and test value early
- Understand the healthcare journey and pain points through observation and feedback
- Design communication and tools that guide, not overwhelm
- Ensure physical spaces align and co-exist with digital goals
With these steps, Jill discussed how her team strives for “intentional design,” meaning that every decision—from budget to building design—centers on the core experience goal. By designing around experiences instead of the technology, organizations can get a clear vision for their current and future strategy, rather than reactively patching technologies together.
- How do you get leadership and stakeholder buy-in for improvements in healthcare?
Daniel shared a few tips he learned from his experience starting a new department as part of a not-for-profit organization and launching new initiatives, while Jill shared her experience working with similar organizations as well as larger hospital campuses:
- Start small and show measurable value
- Engage leadership and cross-functional stakeholders early (not just those directly impacted)
- Share patient stories and feedback to humanize the data
- Use design sessions to align on a common experience vision
- Demonstrate how experience design helps set enterprise-wide standards and inform decision-making
- How can health systems incorporate their future state vision as part of the patient experience strategy?
Jill explained that after teams define what’s important to them and patients/providers, it’s important to think about what happens before, during, and after the care experience. She shared that having a “companion mentality” throughout the entire patient journey can help teams think about what they want to accomplish from a technology perspective, both now and in the future.
Dan added that his team works to create a seamless experience that wraps around patients using digital technology. By planning for an evolving digital infrastructure across campuses and touchpoints, he uses the opportunity to inform future investments, whether it is a “forever” solution or an interim solution until an improved technology becomes available.
In conclusion, our webinar provided a comprehensive look at how healthcare organizations can reimagine both digital and physical spaces through human-centered design methodologies. By focusing on intentional design that prioritizes patient and provider experiences over technology, healthcare systems can create more cohesive and effective care environments.
To watch the full webinar visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfJyzXTn6oY
