top of page

UC Health Radiology 

Leading a team focused on improving the experience of radiology imaging scheduling for patients and schedulers

CLIENT

UC Health in Collaboration with GE Healthcare

​

MY ROLE

Project Lead, UX Design Fellow, Primary Point of Contact

TIMELINE

Aug 2019 - Dec 2019

​

IMG_3309.jpg

OVERVIEW

Project Background

As part of Live Well Collaborative, I’ve worked with UC Health in collaboration with GE Healthcare focusing on the objective of improving the radiology patient experience through a variety of project initiatives. I worked as a co-op for one semester and project lead for three semesters (1year). This case study focuses on one semester’s project with the aim of improving the experience of scheduling MRI and CT imaging for both patients and schedulers. 

radtimeline-01.jpg

OVERVIEW

Timeline of My Work with UC Health Radiology

OVERVIEW

Project Case Study

Challenge

The current patient scheduling system requires improvement to better prepare and inform patients, eliminate delays, and reduce rescheduling of appointments. 

​

Goal

Develop a scheduling system that better prepares and educates schedulers on the imaging process and workflow to improve the MRI and CT patient scheduling process.

OVERVIEW

My Role As Project Lead

TheAs the project lead, I was tasked with conducting communication and interactions with the UC Health doctors of radiology and managing a multidisciplinary team of designers. During this project, I formed and led design thinking workshops for doctors and stakeholders, set up research interviews and scheduler shadowing, guided project plans, and developed final deliverables. As the primary link between Live Well Collaborative and UC Health, it was my job to manage expectations, keep everyone on the same page, and demonstrate the design thinking process to the doctors. 

​

Screen Shot 2020-02-18 at 2.21.29 PM.png

RESEARCH

Research Objectives

CCHMC cards-37.png

01

Conduct interviews with all stakeholders in the scheduling process

CCHMC cards-38.png

02

Understand the current scheduling ecosystem and working flow

CCHMC cards-39.png

03

Understand the scheduling pain points

RESEARCH

Research Methodologies and Tools

Interviewing

1

Scheduling Journey Map

2

Site Observation

3

Benchmarking

4

Existing Data: Scheduling Error Emails 

5

The Live Well team used the following methods to generate research insights. These insights yielded design opportunities for improving the CT/MRI schedule experience.

RESEARCH

Interview Insights

The Live Well team interviewed 19 stakeholders, each with a 30-45 minutes interview/activity.

RESEARCH

Scheduler Journey Map

Screen Shot 2020-02-18 at 3.04.43 PM.png

The team developed a central scheduling journey map by conducting a scheduler and patient activity to gain a better understanding of the general CT/MRI scheduling process and the main pain points.

RESEARCH

Scheduler Shadowing

Screen Shot 2020-02-18 at 3.09.51 PM.png

RESEARCH

Scheduler Ecosystem and Workflow Systems

The team translated the research insights into a scheduling ecosystem to better understand the pain points that arrive within each potential communication system. 

RESEARCH

Primary Pain Points 

Knowledge Gap

1

Inefficient Communication

2

Ambiguous Information

3

Unbalanced Reinforcement

4

Fragmented New Hire Support

5

IDEATION

Technologist and Scheduler Empathy

Co-Creation Activity

The Live Well team conducted a 2-hour long co-creation workshop with a technologist team and scheduler team to frame the pain points and challenges in the central scheduling system and map out potential solutions. While techs and schedulers are in phone communication regularly throughout the day, they lack empathy and insights for each other's daily obligations and challenges. The goal for this activity was for each group to first map their own challenges, then to trade challenges and ideate around the opposite team's problems and then create empathy-based solutions.

 

The workshop tools included 4 activities

  1. Analyze the process: What about the current scheduling process is successful and challenging?

  2. Define challenges and ideal goals

  3. Find solutions for the challenge

  4. Map the solutions on a feasibility matrix

​

Screen Shot 2020-02-17 at 1.45.10 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-02-18 at 3.32.31 PM.png

IDEATION

Co-Creation Activity: Technologist Team Results

Screen Shot 2020-02-17 at 1.44.39 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-02-17 at 1.44.28 PM.png

IDEATION

Co-Creation Activity: Technologist Team Results

Screen Shot 2020-02-17 at 1.44.54 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-02-17 at 1.44.47 PM.png

IDEATION

Co-Creation Activity:

Unified Challenge

and Ideal State

After comparing the results, it was discovered that while each group had unique experiences in their jobs, it was mutually recognized that education is a challenge that schedulers face. While long-time schedulers knew the complex details of radiology and Epic, new hires experienced a large learning curve that left them feeling overwhelmed and likely to be in training for several weeks, if not months, before being able to field their own calls.

​

Challenge 

Ideal Situation

Schedulers need imaging specific education because more knowledge will enhance patient experience.

​

Schedulers who understand the complexity of the imaging department will be able to help patients be well informed and scheduled in ways that are more convenient for them.

As a result of the activity, techs had more empathy for the vast amount of knowledge schedulers must learn, and both groups were able to agree on an ideal state for scheduling.

​

IDEATION

Co-Creation Activity: Unified Solution

Based on the mutually identified challenge and ideal state, the team rated several solutions on a matrix comparing feasibility and impact. It was decided from this exercise that a ‘Radiology 101' education tool that streamlines and compacts the current education process was the optimal solution to pursue.

IMG_2974%20copy_edited.jpg

Radiology 101 

Develop a learning too to help schedulers be better acquainted with the radiology scan process in order to better answer patient questions. 

design

REFINEMENT

Final Deliverables: Print Guide

Radiology 101 Guidebook (Print Version) 

The final guidebook was a tool that was built on previously used scheduler guide content. While the original guides were helpful resources, they were too big and unorganized to be used as a reference while on scheduling calls. In the revised deliverable, information was more clearly organized and designed mainly through color coding and improved type hierarchy. Additional features that schedulers expressed interest in were also added to the updated guide. This deliverable was able to help schedulers quickly find and reference information while on calls and further close the learning gap.  

guide-01_edited.jpg

Guidebook design led By Ceci Wang

Additional Features

  • CPT codes for MRI/CT

  • Contents page

  • Scanner profiles

  • Quick contact information sheet

  • Maps and wayfinding instructions for various scan locations

  • Details on the patient radiology journey to better understand patient perspective & needs

REFINEMENT

Final Deliverables: Web Guide

Radiology 101 Guidebook (Web Version) 

A web version of the guide was developed to meet the needs of schedulers that wanted the information to be digital to better fit into their workflow. It was discovered that most of the older schedulers preferred to access the information through print, while newer and usually younger schedulers wanted to keep everything in their work process digital. 

Web design led By Ariel Swift

REFINEMENT

Final Deliverables: 

Radiology Dictionary

Terms Dictionary (Interactive Web and Print Versions) 

Part of the knowledge gap schedulers expressed experiencing was that to even initially understand the previously used guide, they needed prior knowledge of advanced medical terminology. To deal with this problem, schedulers googled terminology and began developing a rudimentary dictionary. By offering an official terms dictionary, schedulers were better able to reference their guides and save time on searching for definitions on their own. 

​

Dictionary content led By Karolyn Hasselfeld

My Role and Responsibilities 

  • Conducted communication and interactions with the UC Health doctors of radiology

  • Managed a collaborative multidisciplinary team

  • Formed and led design thinking workshops

  • Planned and set up research interviews and scheduler shadowing

  • Conducted and led research interviews 

  • Synthesized research and contextualized user viewpoint

  • Guided project plans and formed goals

  • Presented findings 

​

Key Learnings and Reflection

How to be an effective leader

 This project helped me to learn to recognize, encourage, and promote other team members' skills and offerings. It was important to give them the trust and autonomy to be creative and do excellent work, defined in their terms. I realized that the best way to drive the project forward was simply to provide the direction and give each team member ownership in the project so we were all working toward a shared vision of success.

​

How to manage communication

Early on I knew that communication would be a huge factor in the success of the project. At one point this project had close to 20 different stakeholders involved on the client side who all had their own communication styles and expectations for the project. Since it was my role to apply effective communication to set up interviews, get access to research, and keep the Live Well team and the UC Health team on the same page, I knew I had to be very organized and strategic. I kept notes on each stakeholder’s background, communication style, and the resources they could offer the project. I also implemented weekly team email and calendar updates, so the client leads could ask questions, share insights, and my team could get confirmation we were on the right track. At times, lack of communication from the client side slowed down the project, so I learned to be proactive by asking for research content and interviews early on and utilizing the more respondent hospital connections and relations I made as quick alternative resources.  

 

How to address problems 

Being the leader of a team means you are the face of the project which also means you are the first to accept personal responsibility when the inevitable problems arise. I learned that it’s okay to make mistakes as long as you avoid making excuses, address the problem, and then quickly transition to outlining your plan to solve the problem. Even if something goes wrong, as long as you are solution-oriented and positive-minded, people are usually very willing to look past it and move forward. 

Project Team 

PORTFOLIO

  • Ariel Swift: UX Design Fellow, Project Lead 

  • Ceci Wang: Design PhD

  • Karolyn Hasselfeld: Graduate Assistant Co-op

NEXT / Pectus Empowerment

bottom of page