Case Study Discussion: Improving the User Experience in Healthcare Informatics
A tertiary care center in the western United States has an installed base of EHRs supported by Cerner Corporation for inpatient areas and by Epic for outpatient areas. Other technology includes a suite of about 300 different applications supported by the IT department. The current environment, while including robust capabilities such as computerized provider order entry, is “siloed” with information. Healthcare providers complain that they have difficulty obtaining the “big picture” of the patient across systems and they have to remember information located in disparate systems. They are burdened with integrating information themselves. Not only is this time consuming; it is potentially prone to error. Providers have developed numerous workarounds to the different systems in ambulatory and inpatient areas, including “shadow” files for patients they see frequently. Nurses complain that they have to “jump around” the inpatient system to find information they need for activities such as patient handoffs.The organization responds by developing a vision for the future that centered on the concept of knowledge management (KM). This concept is defined as the systematic process of identifying, capturing, and transferring information and knowledge that people can use to create, compete (with other organizations), and improve. A crucial aspect of KM is improving the user experience. As the leaders in the organization begin to address KM and improve the user experience, they are employing the same tactics described in this chapter.
Discussion Questions
Assume that you are the leader for UX for your discipline in your organization. Where would you start to improve the user experience? Pharmacists supporting the ICUs are asking for your help to improve their situation their user experience because they are forced to use nonintegrated systems.
What methods would you use to examine this issue? The institution is in the process of purchasing new physiologic monitors for their step-down unit. Describe how usability should be incorporated as part of the purchasing process. Design a brief usability test to support the purchasing process
