Gaining insight into patient families' communication preferences, their approach to hospital interactions, and their sentiments about engaging with the hospital.
Role
UX Design Intern
Timeline
June-August 2023
Methods
Contextual Inquiry, Artifact Walkthrough, Cultural Probe, Affinity Grouping, Rapid Prototyping
TLDR;
Investigated communication strategies to engage patient families.
Analyzed their emotional responses to hospital interactions.
Lessons Learned
Pediatric care is emotional; researchers must support participants sharing sensitive experiences.
Hospital initiatives must address unique user needs to avoid disengagement.
Final Deliverable
Presentation outlining insights + themes from user interviews.
Communication recommendations for future initiatives.
Despite ongoing efforts, there was still a lot of uncertainty about the best ways to communicate with patient families. This was a key issue when dealing with no-shows, cancellations, and emergency department overflow.
Parents, especially when it comes to their children, often feel anxious, and how healthcare teams reach out can make a big difference in their response.
The Task
The hospital needed a framework to guide decisions on which channels to use based on patient family preferences and the type of information being shared.
Our Approach
The research I focused on this summer was to: • Understand what kind of communication parents prefer. • Identify the types of information that influence communication methods. • Identifying principles to guide communication initiatives
Here’s a quick rundown of each step with some highlights:
Background Research
Interviews
Synthesis
Design Deliverables
Background Research
What We Did:
Reviewed studies pertaining to no-show rates and the factors surrounding them, communication preferences, and parent anxieties.
Reviewed past hospital interviews regarding communication methods.
Identified 4 key areas requiring further investigation
Before diving into any problem solving, it was important that I had a strong understanding of limitations, information that was already documented, and how hospital decisions were made.
Step 1
Look through published studies to understand what research had already been completed regarding communication preferences.
Decision making in a hospital environment revolves around having scientific evidence– design decisions are not immune to this.
My initial areas of exploration were the following:
Step 2
Look through past interviews conducted by the team.
Key takeaways include:
This is when I realized I needed to talk to more people.
With the help of my manager, I created a question flow addressing all the various topics I hoped to gain insight on.
Question flow
What I Learned:
The way parents are spoken to affects: no-show rates, emergency department overflows, appointment cancellation rates, etc.
Communication preferences stem from a blend of factors: rapport with providers, understanding of medical concepts, comfort with resources, and existing information channels.
Although reviewing studies can be time-consuming, it provides an irreplaceable foundation of knowledge in your research area.
Interviews
What We Did:
Interviewed 11 parents/guardians of pediatric patients.
Transcribed and organized interview recordings.
Over two weeks, I interviewed 11 parents/guardians and learned that discussing a child’s health is deeply emotional. Many come to BCH seeking specialty care unavailable locally, adding uncertainty to their communication experience.
Common anxieties when seeking medical care were heightened by anxiety related to travel, medical comprehension, and high-acuity conditions their child may experience.
What I Learned:
Interviews about pediatric care can be highly emotional. It's important to be prepared to comfort the person on the other end of the conversation when needed.
It's important to share these stories authentically, so others understand the true effect of their decisions on patients and families too.
Synthesis
What We Did:
Developed insights and themes that related to various parts of the patient journey: pre-visit preparation, during visit, post-visit care.
Identified common anxieties that stemmed from insufficient reassurance, a lack of interactions that reinforced feelings of safety, and fatigue from communication.
Information was grouped into 17 categories to highlight parent/guardian experiences.
Modifications focused on specific parts of processes, as gradual changes were more effective. Families varied greatly, from those seeking rare treatments to those with minor conditions.
Design principles were needed to support and reassure all families, given their diversity and limited modification options.
After presenting this preliminary information to my team, they recommended creating a set of personas and design principles. These would help identify the most effective communication methods for various scenarios in the future.
What I Learned:
Hospital pain points often reflect families’ underlying fear: will my child be okay? Addressing this is key to empathetic, supportive communication.
Designing hospital initiatives is challenging due to conflicting variables and the interplay of medical decisions with emotional nuances.
Design Deliverables
What We Did:
Created 3 personas that preferred 3 different communication modes– included quotes, a relative scale to understand where they fell, and the beliefs they may hold.
Created a set of 6 design principles that helped address the ambiguity in hospital communication decision making.
Personas
The department needed clarity on when specific communication methods were appropriate. Creating basic personas helped consolidate patient families’ attitudes, enabling tailored approaches for diverse groups.
Personas
It simplified where certain methods of communication (email, phone, text, mail, portal messaging) could be more effective in communicating varying levels of information (appointment reminders → post-surgery care).
What I Learned:
The ability to provide documentation for each step of the process and present various pieces of evidence was crucial in establishing the legitimacy of the content.
Creating design principles can be terrifying. But as a researcher, it's important to remember that your principles are grounded in real conversations and research—they stem from a place of genuine understanding.
Looking back
What I'd Do Differently
Conduct more interviews with a wider range of patient families to capture an even more diverse set of experiences and perspectives.
Have a clear process before jumping into the project. Granted I had no clue what a research process looked like at the time, but looking back I wish I had the general framework to better approach this project.
Collaborate more closely with other departments to ensure the design principles and personas align with broader organizational goals and initiatives.
Understand how recommendations should be formed and presented to a room of diverse stakeholders– it can be difficult to appeal to design teams, communication teams, business teams, and health-focused teams alike.
