Design Thinking Helping Healthcare
At Beyond Design we are thoroughly versed in the design thinking process and use it for every project and client, big or small. Design thinking is the approach that focuses on creative and human centered solutions for complex problems. Combining creativity, innovation, and empathy, design thinking usually results in the best “user friendly” solution. Healthcare providers have started to tap into this process to more accurately assess their patient needs and challenges. Specifically, when it comes to missed patient appointments.
Image Source: Healthcare Conference.
The Harvard Business Review has recently studied this process and the correlation between improving the missed appointment issue and design thinking and found that with the new research approach doctors and patients can work together to find the best solution. For example, they took the hypothetical of a patient with chronic pain, transportation issues, and repeating regular appointments and how those factors effect the patient’s attendance. Diving into the details of patients like this lead to discovering consistent problems and start the “rapid prototyping” phase of design thinking where brainstorming and solutions are tested and modified. With HBR’s example, the patient needs to plan logistics with outside sources (i.e. pick up service and assistance) to get to the hospital which involves getting to the correct entrance, floor, and office (an issue especially common with larger hospitals as opposed to family-care offices), then they need to coordinate their travel back home. Door to door hospital visit logistics are one of the most common factors in approximately 3.6 million missed appointments per year.
Image Source: Content Magazine.
In an industry where user experience and satisfaction is often low (think long E.R. wait times, check up wait times, unpredictable service, etc.), design thinking can crack some of these healthcare woes leading to more efficient and reliable service. As HBR stresses, finding these solutions starts with design thinking for patients who’s biggest struggle is simply making it to the appointment. To read more on the this article please click here and check out our website for more blogs and articles regarding design thinking.
Banner Image source: Tech Crunch.
Home Image source: Health Line.
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