What the business is trying to address?
“How might we most effectively route a hospital patient through his/her journey of care, resulting in higher quality care, patient satisfaction, and operational efficiency?”
More about the context …
While numerous platforms cater to out-patients, a significant gap remains for in-patients and their families in India. Navigating the complexities of hospital admissions, surgeries, and ongoing treatments can be overwhelming.
Our mission is to bridge this gap with a comprehensive digital solution. By streamlining the entire hospital journey, we aim to empower patients and their loved ones with:
- Seamless Hospital Selection: Effortlessly compare hospitals based on specialties, facilities, and patient reviews.
- Personalized Admission Planning: Pre-book hospital stays, schedule surgeries, and coordinate with care providers.
- Real-time Treatment Updates: Stay informed about the patient’s progress, medication schedules, and upcoming procedures.
- Efficient Communication: Connect directly with healthcare professionals and hospital staff for inquiries and support.
- Transparent Billing and Insurance: Access detailed billing information and insurance claims status.
With our innovative platform, patients can focus on their recovery while enjoying peace of mind knowing their healthcare needs are well-managed.
Our team
This collaborative project was initiated at the request of an entrepreneur seeking a innovative concept. As part of a dedicated team of three designers, I contributed to every phase of the project, from in-depth research to the development of a comprehensive solution. Our month-long collaboration fostered a dynamic environment where each team member’s unique perspectives and skills were valued and integrated into the final outcome.
Internal stakeholders
- Product Owner and other Team Members of product team of solution provider company
- Engineering leads
- Developers
External stakeholders
- Patients
- Relatives or Friends of patients
- Hospital administration
Case in point
To improve healthcare quality, we need a better strategy. Creating patient personas and user journey maps helps us understand patient needs and identify pain points. User research, like interviews, helps us map the patient’s journey and find solutions.
Primary research
We conducted one-on-one interviews with 12 people in Bangalore who had recent hospital experiences. Participants were aged 18-70, digitally savvy, and had been hospitalized themselves or had a hospitalized family member. We focused on urban and suburban residents to align with our team’s location.
What we tried to discover from the research
- How do people prepare for planned surgeries or treatments?
- What are the biggest challenges in planned hospitalization?
- How tough were the experiences of emergency hospitalizations?
- How do treatment seekers look for different options for hospitalization?
- Average turnaround time for getting admission in both the cases (Planned / Emergency)?
- How do patient parties get updates on the treatment and patient’s condition?
Key insights
Planned hospitalization
- From collecting information to actual admission, everything leads to wait in a long queue at hospitals and huge documentation processes.
- Getting desired bed is always a concern.
- Comparison between hospitals, their charges, facilities etc. can’t be found at one place.
- Transparency of charges is always an issue.
- People often search for reviews in their known circle before taking hospital services.
Emergency hospitalization
- Searching for ambulance and getting it in minimum time is always a challenge.
- ICU ambulances are not available in enough number.
- Discovering the nearest hospital is not quite easy.
- Contacting emergency of the hospitals and check for availability of beds is very difficult.
- Many times searching for blood for rare blood group is tough.
- Getting frequent updates on patient’s health condition is not possible most of the time.
Patient persona
Mr. Abhijeet Singh
Sales Exec. in a MNC, 32 yrs, Jaipur
Needs surgery for gallbladder stones within a month.
“Choosing best hospital is not easy. You need to rely on feedbacks from people you know personally.”
Enjoys
- Efficiency of digital solutions
- Control over his spent
- Easily collecting trustworthy evidence for
making quick but good decisions - Engaging with trustworthy services
Frustrations
- Not getting value add for paid services
- Increased effort for work life balance
- Payment in cash mode
- Delays and wait lists
Goals
- To get the best and cost effective treatment for his upcoming surgery from a recommended hospital
Needs
- Doctor’s referral for getting
- hospitalised
- Choose recommended
hospital from options - Check for cost and insurace
options - Get admission
- Get treatment
- Recover
- Release
Tasks
- Consult with doctor and
- receive opinion about
- hospitalisation
- Search hospitals
- Consider ratings and
recommendation about
hospitals - Choose and confirm
- Visit hospital
- Check costs and insurance
- Register and admission
- Treatment
- Recover
- Payment settlement
- Feedback and discharge
Journey map of Abhijeet (the patient)
| Consultation | Choose hospital | Admission | Treatment | Recover and Release | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Activities | Sharing the symptoms and test reports with doctors. Receiving opinion about hospitalization. Taking second opinion(optional). Preparing mentally for the hospitalization. | Looking for a hospital nearby. Reading reviews and ratings. Taking recommendation from friends and family. Selecting and finalizing hospital. | Reaching hospital. Registering and filling details. Selecting plan of treatment and accommodation. Checking insurance option. Initial payment. | Getting accommodation. Being investigated and treated by doctors. Getting medical examinations done. Getting surgery Or/ And other treatment. Collecting medicines or blood if required. | Completing treatment and getting recovered. Checking settled amount by insurance. Checking bills and pay remaining amount. Getting discharge certificate from doctor. Filling up feedback form. Getting release. |
| Expectations | Doctor providing enough time to listen to all symptoms and check past history and reports. Doctor diagnosing correctly. Doctor explaining the disease and its treatment clearly. | Availability of enough ratings and recommendation of doctor and hospital. Getting details like experience, qualification and specialty of doctor. Getting insurance tie up related information. Advice and feedback from friends and family. | Less waiting period. Notifying insurance company(TPA) quickly. Less documentation. Transparency in charges. Multiple payment methods. | Getting best accommodation. Getting treatment started ASAP. Getting all the medicines available at hospital. Arranging blood(if required)ASAP. Getting all the examinations done at same hospital. | Getting prescriptions and other documents of the treatment. Understanding time and frequency of medication after release. Verifying bills and insurance details. Hassle free discharge. |
| Frustrations | Doctor referring his own network hospitals which are costly. Afraid about hospitalization. Time constraint to share enough information with doctor. | Physically visiting hospitals for enquiries. Not getting enough ratings, reviews about hospital and doctor. Information about hospitals or profile of doctor is not updated. | Long queue and huge documentation. Beds and accommodation not available. Insurance service provider don’t have cash-less facility for the desired hospital. | Accommodation is not as clean and nice as it shown in the picture or catalog. Visiting other clinics for certain examinations. Not getting updates about ongoing treatment. | Waiting time for payment settlement and discharge formalities. Carrying huge number of papers at the time of release. Need to spend time on filling up feedback form. |
| Opportunities | Platform for sharing treatment case-documents online. Platform for getting doctors’ advice online. | Searching and getting all the information online. Discussing and inquiring from home. Clarity in details about doctors and hospitals. | Checking the availability of seats online. Booking the treatment online. Getting live help in procedure of booking. Getting details about Insurance with hospital details. | Verified reviews and ratings with pictures. Getting synced to get clarity on treatment procedures and steps. Getting updates on bills. Getting updates on pharma, pathology centers, radiology centers and blood banks. | Verify bills without reaching payment counters. Pay from anywhere. Digital access for prescriptions, reports, records and other documents. |
Patient’s family member persona
Ms. Ria Biswas
Post Grad student, 24 yrs, Kolkata
Recently, her father suffered a severe heart attack.
“It was a nightmare when I had to wait in a long queue at emergency for admitting my father who just faced a heart attack”
Enjoys
- Time spent with parents
- Affection with her smart phone and social media active
- App cabs like Uber, Ola for commuting
- Online booking for trips and events
- Connected with friends online
Frustrations
- Non digital manual systems
- Long queues
- Worries for family members
- Filling up long forms
- Carrying cash
Goals
- To get the best treatment immediately in the good hospital and save her father’s life
Needs
- Get immediate medical assistance for saving her father’s life
- Reach the emergency unit of nearest hospital as soon as possible
- Start the treatment immediately after reaching the hospital
Tasks
- Call ambulance
- Call for medical assistance over phone
- Search nearest good hospital
- Findout quickest way to hospital
- Reach emergency
- Admit
- Immediate treatment
- Recover
- Payment settlement
- Feedback and release
Journey map of Ria (patient’s family member)
| Choose hospital | Admission into Emergency | Treatment | Recover and Release | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Activities | Calling ambulance Finding nearest multi-specialty hospital Contacting hospital and informing about emergency situation | Reaching emergency unit Registration, filling up details and other admission procedures Making initial payments | Getting emergency care and investigation Getting surgery or other treatment Collecting medicines if no stock in hospital Collecting blood from blood banks Asking information about condition of the patient | Completing treatment and getting recovered Checking settled amount by insurance Checking bills and pay remaining amount Getting discharge certificate from doctor Filling up feedback form Getting release |
| Expectations | Getting ICU ambulance Easy and quick reaching to the location of the hospital On call medical assistance for very critical condition of the patient Assistance in ambulance | Getting treatment started immediately Easy and quick documentation Muti payment option | No wasting of time to initiate treatment Getting the live saving medicines ASAP Getting the bloods without wasting time Getting the updates of the condition of the patient | Getting complete cure and quick recovery Getting prescriptions and other documents of the treatment Understanding time and frequency of medication after release Verifying bills and insurance details Hassle free discharge |
| Frustrations | Not getting ambulance Not able to get lines for emergency contacts of the hospitals Hospital location is not easy to discover Traffic congestions Quickest routes are not discoverable | Long queue for submitting documents to the emergency counter ATM is not working at hospital for dispensing cash Hospital doesn’t take anything else than cash at payment counter Huge paperwork | Not able to get the update on patient’s condition No clarity about the treatments No stock of medicines and blood at hospital | Waiting time for payment settlement and discharge formalities Carrying huge number of papers at the time of release Need to spend time on filling up feedback form |
| Opportunities | Live medical assistance Map direction of the hospital location Live traffic updates Intimate traffic department about carrying the critical patient | Online registration and other documentation Online payment Online insurance assistance | Get synced about the treatment and the condition of the patient Search and get information about nearby blood bank and understand the availability of blood Find medicine store nearby and check availability of medicine | Verify bills without reaching payment counters Pay from anywhere Digital access for prescriptions, reports, records and other documents Provide feedback online anytime |
Hospital admin persona
Mr. Syed Yunus
Hospital admin & record keeper, 38 yrs, Hyderabad
Tracks the patient’s progress throughout and after treatment.
“Sometimes we can’t inform the relatives about their patients’
conditions by checking system. We need to ask the nurses about it.”
Enjoys
- Work life balance
- helping people
- Smart and automated systems
Frustrations
- Making manual entries in the system
- Lack of petty cash in the cash box
- Following up with anyone on anything again
and again - Long queue Infront
Goals
- To collect, update and manage medical and non medical records of the patient quickly and efficiently
Needs
- Collect and update
identification and other data at the time of admission - Collect medical and non
medical data during treatment and update - Update the records as
quickly as possible - Inform patients’ relatives
about the condition when
asked - Provide non medical help
Tasks
- Registration of patients
- Manage admission procedures
- Collect patients’ medical
data during treatment - Record medical and non
medical data before, during
or after the treatment - Help patients’ family for
different formalities - Coordinate with different
departments to get the different treatment data and keep record of them
Journey map of Syed (hospital admin)
| Patient Entry | Admission | Treatment | Recover and Release | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Activities | Providing in-patient form Checking and answering any questions of patient | Registering patient into the system Filling patient details into the system Receive payments Allocating the accommodation Inform different departments about the admission | Coordinate with different departments and collecting medical data Keeping records of patients’ medical data Providing updates to patients’ family and friends Helping patients or companion of patients for any queries | Creating invoices Checking with insurance TPA for claim settlements Creating final bills Sending bills to patients and collecting payments Arranging discharge from doctors Getting feedback forms signed off |
| Expectations | Providing all answers to all the queries of patients Conducting admission procedures quickly | Filling up the details into the system very quickly Notifying all the related departments about the admission in one go Hassle-free payment collection | Coordinating with all the departments easily Receiving patients’ treatment related information ASAP | Hassle-free collection of payments Getting good feedback from the patients Providing the final receipts of the invoices Arranging release formalities |
| Frustrations | Long queue at the counter Patients and their families are impatient Following up with lodging department and Getting updates about availability | Entering huge details of patient into the system Inform every single department individually one by one Limited payment options at the counter | Coordinating with other departments and getting patients’ information Reproach from patients’ families Increase effort for work life balance | Waiting time for approvals for discharge to come Printing huge number of papers at the time of release Receiving bad feedback from patient side |
| Opportunities | Digital self driven solution for entries Centralized system in hospital | Online registration and other documentation Multiple payment options Tie up and digital insurance assistance | Common digital platform to expose patients’ data with patients and their families Live notification mechanism Proper sync among the departments | Digital platform to upload the documents Multiple payment options Online feedback Online communication among different departments |
The ‘Opportunities’ identified in our user journey maps directly informed the development of user stories for this project, ultimately shaping the final product. Here are some examples of these use cases:
Patient Empowerment:
“As a patient, I want to easily search for doctors and hospitals online and access comprehensive information about them so I can make informed decisions about my treatment.“Digital Accessibility:
“As a patient, I want to have online access to all my treatment-related documents for easy reference and convenience.“
Information architecture
Proposed site map
Wireframes
Visual Design
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