Readmissions Research @ BJC Healthcare

Hospital readmissions are a pervasive issue in the health care industry. The social, cognitive, and clinical needs that contribute to a patient returning to the hospital make the problem highly complex and multi-faceted. 

When our team launched into a design research project on readmissions we knew what we would find: frustrated patients, frustrated clinicians and a community that lost many medical safety-net services over the last 20 years. While in some ways those assumptions were correct, the journey was enlightening and inspiring. Using the practices of human-centered design we talked directly with patients and clinicians about their needs and pain points. This allowed us to come up with richer insights that were much more generative than our original assumptions. Hearing stories from patients and spending time in their homes allowed our team to bring forward multiple concepts that were focused first on our patients rather than solely avoiding penalties.

On this project I led user research and prototyping. Our key activities included direct interviews, observation, and journey mapping during research. As we transitioned into prototyping, collecting feedback was our most valuable tool. I organized and facilitated multiple sessions, using them to evaluate and refine our ideas. As a result of this rapid iteration, many of these concepts and insights were included in the design of a new care management model submitted for a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation grant.