An integrated patient journey mapping tool for embedding quality in healthcare service reform

Abstract

The healthcare sector is a highly regulated environment that is subject to numerous constraints. Standards around medical protocol, medical device certification, and data protection ensure that the wellbeing and privacy of patients is protected during all encounters with the healthcare system. However, a gap has opened up between the need to meet these constraints, improve performance, and also deliver good patient experience. For example, the medical protocol for hypertension during pregnancy establishes a set of clinically validated treatment guidelines, but does not consider the unique nature of patient experience. We assert that design research principles can be used to create visual tools that pay homage to these constraints and performance improvement goals without compromising patient experience. In this paper, we describe such a tool that has been developed during a healthcare project using a human-centred design research approach. The integrated tool for patient journey mapping addresses the shortcomings of existing methodologies by supporting multidisciplinary practitioners in designing healthcare solutions that meet the demands of existing constraints, performance improvement, and patient experience. In addition, we document how patient journey maps were used on the project to facilitate collaboration among a team of multidisciplinary stakeholders.

Identifying patient‐centered outcomes for children with cancer and their caregivers when they seek care in the emergency department

“…Experience mapping is an exploratory activity in which participants are asked to draw out their movements and interactions during an ED experience. This method is inspired by the field of human‐centered design, which strives to incorporate the stakeholder's perspective as the central component of the design and creation process, which is beginning to be used in healthcare services research . We asked participants to name each room they enter in the ED and everyone they interact with in that room.…”

Engaging Youth in a Mental Health System Improvement Initiative in Ontario: Developing the Be Safe Resource

“…Implementation science aims to understand the behaviour of healthcare stakeholders and to identify and address the barriers to effective and sustainable adoption of evidence-informed interventions (National Institutes of Health, 2017). To support the collaboratives, PSSP implementation teams also applied other approaches and tools as appropriate, including those pertaining to quality improvement (e.g., plan-do-study-act cycles; Health Quality Ontario, 2012), system design (e.g., client journey mapping; McCarthy et al, 2016), and health equity (i.e., the Health Equity Impact Assessment, Ontario; MOHLTC, 2012).…”

Mapping customers: A case study of a university hospital in Indonesia

“…According to McCarthyet al (2016), the benefits of patient mapping are to support the planning of healthcare solutions by the multidisciplinary stakeholders in order to improve the hospital's performance and patient satisfaction, as well as to alleviate the current constraints in the healthcare service. 8 Mapping involves a simple and appropriate visualisation of information that will help stakeholders to engage in the service, to collectively determine the objective and to monitor progress. 9 Theresults of the customer mapping can be used by the executive board of Airlangga University Hospital as a tool to support the development of amarketing strategy plan.…”