Suzannah Downie

Home First: Improving Graphical User Interface Designs to Support Patient Flow a

Abstract:

The flow of patients through hospitals and associated healthcare services represents one of the key challenges faced by healthcare providers [1]. Bottlenecks and delays within the patient flow process contribute to significant costs and are associated with negative patient outcomes [2]. To support in reducing patient flow issues, many healthcare organisations employ the use of digital information systems, driven by the rise of ubiquitous computing technology [3, 4, 5]. Working in partnership with our stakeholder, Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB), we employ ethnographic methods to examine how an existing patient management system, Signal, supports the transition of clinically optimised patients from beds on hospital wards into home and community-based care settings. We undertake a series of semi-structured focus groups and one semi-structured interview with members of staff involved in the provision of community care services through this existing system. We consider the ways in which the current system in its “as is” state meets the needs of this unique set of users and document where challenges currently exist. Following this we design a set of graphical user interface prototypes aimed at better supporting these users to complete the tasks necessary for ensuring adequate patient flow, and gather feedback from these users on the efficacy of the designs. We also consider extensively further avenues for investigation in relation to patient flow, as facilitated by community-based care workers through SBUHB’s Signal system. We find that, in it’s current form, Signal lacks key features in the area of notification and awareness. We also find that the system would benefit significantly from further investment in more intelligence-led features and better integration with other systems submitted to Swansea University in partial fulfilment.