Design research, strategy, and storytelling
Building a 360 view of the patients' experience at Premera Blue Cross
Healthcare is a complex system, where all the actors (health insurance companies, doctors, receptionists, billing and prior authorization services, and others) need to play well together to ensure the best outcomes for the patient. However, inefficiencies and poor design decisions often put the patient in the middle. This project aimed at building a holistic view of the patient's primary care experience and a strategy for a better partnership between Premera and one of its partner clinics.
This project was built on the 360 Patient experience approach designed by Premera's design research and strategy team and applied to improving cancer patients' experience in partnership with Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Timeline
4 months from the kick-off to the study report
Activities
Project kick-off for the partners
Team training
Help with recruitment
Patient interviews
Patient shadows
Observations at the clinic
Stakeholders
Clinic manager
Partner clinic project manager
Director of the clinic experience
Product owner
Design strategists
Design researchers
Providers
Receptionists
Deliverables
Service design blueprint
Brochure with insights
Impact
The insights from this work and strategies for improving end-to-end patients' experience were incorporated into the future work and design of a care center in Eastern Washington.
This work laid the foundation for further design and research work in the patient's experience.
Our partners gained familiarity with the ethnographic research and service design processes and received toolkits for recreating this effort in other settings.
Our research and strategy teams gained expertise and built confidence in conducting ethnographic research in vulnerable contexts.
My role
I was the lead researcher and a co-lead on this project, working closely with my design strategy counterpart and our design, research, the voice of the customer, and innovation teams, as well as management and experience representatives from the partner clinic. In this role, I led the team through the project, provided guidance and support to team members who were less familiar with ethnographic approach, and conducted research and analysis as part of the team. Here are some of the activities that I did:
Led our interdisciplinary team through a one-day of a design research Bootcamp to help them learn how to do shadows, interviews, observations, take notes, synthesize the learnings, and build a blueprint.
Planned and split research activities across our team, building on our previous 360 work.
Led observations, expert interviews, patient shadows in the clinic, and took notes.
Led the team through the synthesis.
Build and delivered a final report with themes and a patient experience blueprint.