Improving Hospital Accessibility

Effortlessly delivering adapted call lights to patients with mobility disabilities.

Service design course project sponsored by Northwestern Medicine.

Responsibilities: Design Research, Service Design

Duration: Jan - Mar 2024

Tools: Miro, Figma, Rhino, Illustrator

Team: Abiola Makinde, Maria Brito Goncalves, Eddy Chen, Brittany Ransom, Noble Jones

DeliveryBox is a locker placed at the nurse station in a hospital. It is a service that facilitates the delivery hand-off process between central supply, where packages are sent from, and the nurse stations to help nurses get call lights to the patient in a timely manner.

PROBLEM: Adapted call lights in in-patient hospital settings assist those with impaired mobility in reaching nursing staff. However, unlike the traditional call light, adapted ones require ordering when the patient first arrives to their room and there are breakdowns in delivering the lights to the bedside.

Through user data collection, we were able to complete...

2

2

in-person hospital visits

in-person hospital visits

7

7

in-depth subject matter expert interviews:

-nursing managers

-physicians

-speech pathologists

-occupational therapists

in-depth subject matter expert interviews:

-nursing managers

-physicians

-speech pathologists

-occupational therapists

2

2

in-depth patient interviews

in-depth patient interviews

2

in-depth patient interviews

From there, we developed two personas based on our interviewees and hospital visits.

From there, we developed two personas based on our interviewees and hospital visits.

Meet Lucas
Lucas is a 32 year old patient with hand dexterity trouble. He asks his nurse for a sip and puff adapted call light.

Meet Lucas
Lucas is a 32 year old patient with hand dexterity trouble. He asks his nurse for a sip and puff adapted call light.

5 hours later...
Lucas is having pain in his hands, but still hasn’t received his call light and therefore, is unable to call for help.

5 hours later...
Lucas is having pain in his hands, but still hasn’t received his call light and therefore, is unable to call for help.

Meet David
David is the nurse in charge of attending to Lucas’ needs. He ordered the call light right after his arrival, but has yet to hear back from the supply chain on its status.

Meet David
David is the nurse in charge of attending to Lucas’ needs. He ordered the call light right after his arrival, but has yet to hear back from the supply chain on its status.

5 hours later...
David goes to the nurse station to check on the call light delivery. He realizes it has yet to arrive and is frustrated because he has no way to be promptly informed when it arrives.

5 hours later...
David goes to the nurse station to check on the call light delivery. He realizes it has yet to arrive and is frustrated because he has no way to be promptly informed when it arrives.

We found one large insight from our user data...

There is a communication disconnect of whether an object got delivered because of lack of information between supply chain and hospital staff.

When we analyzed the process of ordering a call light, we saw that Lucas and David’s journeys overlapped and found the area of opportunity where we could come in and help.

The question we needed to answer was: How might we facilitate clearer communication between the supply chain and hospital staff along the delivery process of assistive mobility devices?

We brainstormed 8 potential solutions and created lo-fi prototypes.

Desirability, Feasibility, Viability

We compared each prototype based on 3 pillars and picked the best solution based on our design requirements.

Lessons Learned:

Lessons Learned:

  1. It’s hard to implement new systems into the healthcare industry since there are a lot of rules involved with patient privacy.

  1. It’s hard to implement new systems into the healthcare industry since there are a lot of rules involved with patient privacy.

  1. Workarounds lead to insights. When we visited the hospital, we noticed makeshift temporary solutions. These became opportunities for change.

  1. Workarounds lead to insights. When we visited the hospital, we noticed makeshift temporary solutions. These became opportunities for change.

Overall, this was a fun project! It was helpful to come into this problem space new and unbiased.

Overall, this was a fun project! It was helpful to come into this problem space new and unbiased.