Streamlining the Calendar System
User Research, Workshop planning and facilitation, Service blueprinting, Team management, Stakeholder collaboration
2 UX Researchers (including myself), Design Lead (myself), Product Designer, Product Manager, Engineering Team
Improved scheduling efficiency through integration of clinician availability calendar into the scheduling system
Clinicians, Care coordinators
2 months
1. Project Summary
Background
According to a recent study patients who are able to schedule appointments with their mental health providers are more likely to adhere to their treatment plans and experience positive outcomes in their overall mental health.
Cerebral, an online mental health provider, was experiencing patient churn due to difficulty scheduling appointments with clinicians. Patients were frustrated with clinician no-shows and full calendars. The company recognized the importance of improving their calendar scheduling and availability functionality to address these issues.
How might we improve the scheduling and availability system for Cerebral's clinicians in order to reduce patient churn and improve the overall efficiency of the appointment booking process?
Pain Points
- Errors Marking Availability: Clinicians had to mark when they were not available instead of when they were, leading to errors.
- Limited Calendar Blocking: Clinicians could only block out 60 days at a time, causing booking conflicts if they didn't block out the next 60 days quickly enough.
- Inability to Specify Patient Types: The system did not allow clinicians to specify the types of patients they wanted to see at certain times, as the appointment availability was shown as the absence of an appointment.
- Default Availability Assumption: The system assumed that clinicians were available unless they declared otherwise.
- Inability to Schedule or Reschedule Appointments: Clinicians were not able to schedule or reschedule appointments.
Approach
- Created project timeline.
- Conducted user interviews.
- Synthesized research.
- Conducted system analysis
- Created service blueprint.
- Planned and facilitated workshops.
- Established project goals and objectives.
- Defined scope of work.
- Created service blueprint.
- Planned and facilitated workshops.
- Established project goals and objectives.
- Defined scope of work.
- Provided quality assurance testing.
- Delivered final product.
- Provided training to stakeholders.
- Handled project documentation and closure.
Solutions
Clinicians were frustrated with the difficult and error-prone process of working outside of the EMR due to calendar syncing issues. To address this pain point, we integrated calendar availability directly within the EMR. This not only eliminated the need for clinicians to use a separate Google calendar but also drastically reduced errors and improved overall efficiency.
Success Metrics
The team identified the following metrics to track the success of this project:
- Clinician satisfaction score: Ensuring that clinicians are satisfied with the new calendar and appointment system is crucial for their engagement and buy-in.
- Calendar syncing bug reporting: Addressing and reducing bugs related to calendar syncing is important to improve the system's reliability and prevent any scheduling errors or conflicts.
- Clinician utilization rate: Measuring and tracking how often clinicians are using the new system. A high utilization rate indicates that the system is being adopted and integrated into their workflow effectively.
- Patient satisfaction rate: Ensuring that patients are satisfied with the new system is crucial for their overall experience and engagement with the Cerebral.
- Reduction in double-bookings: Tracking the reduction of double-bookings helps gage improvements with the new system and better measure appointment efficiency.
2. Process
Discover
To kick off this project, I collaborated closely with my team to define the project requirements. Together, we crafted an initial project timeline to help us stay on track and ensure the successful delivery of the final product.
I conducted user research to understand the pain points and challenges clinicians and patients were facing with the existing calendar system. I led clinicians and stakeholders interviews, conducted shadowing sessions, and analyzed user feedback to identify the most significant pain points.
Define
As pain points were identified, I conducted workshops with engineers and other stakeholders to understand and outline the calendar process at Cerebral. I then created a service blueprint to map out the current scheduling and availability process and identified areas of improvement.
Our research led to one significant insight: having the calendar outside of the EMR caused a two-fold problem. Not only did it create inefficiencies for clinicians, it was also the cause of a vast amount of bugs.
After researching the calendar syncing issues and workflow inefficiencies, I recommended integrating clinician availability calendar within the EMR to the product manager. We collaborated to develop an MVP for the initial design phase of the project. This approach would encourage clinicians to use the EMR for scheduling, simplify the scheduling experience, and ultimately improve workflows and outcomes.
Design
The product team then worked on designing the new features to improve the scheduling and availability functionality within the constraints I discovered in the research phase. They worked with the development team to ensure that the new features could be implemented within the constraints of the existing system.
As part of the project, we provided guidance on the best testing parameters to validate the new UI and integrate clinician availability solution suggested in the research phase. Based on our advice, a usability test was conducted with 6 clinicians to assess their understanding of the "create an appointment" feature with the integrated calendar and the two ways to select appointment times.
The testing results, which included the clinicians' preference for selecting appointment times through the new clinician availability calendar, were crucial in convincing the product manager to prioritize this feature for the MVP. These findings validated the integration of clinician availability directly within the EMR, effectively improving the usability and efficiency of the calendar system.
Deliver
After the design was complete, the development team implemented the new features. The product team conducted further user testing to ensure that the new features were easy to use and effective.
3. Conclusion
Takeaway
Cerebral's improved scheduling and availability functionality helped to reduce patient churn and improve clinician satisfaction. The new multiple and recurring appointment functionality provided clinicians with more flexibility in booking appointments, which led to increased patient retention rates. The product team plans to continue to focus on improving the scheduling and availability functionality by adding new flows that allow for the creation of multiple and recurring appointments.
Next Steps
To further improve Cerebral's scheduling and availability system, we will focus on:
- Developing Multiple and Recurring Appointment Functionality Creating additional flows that allow for the creation of multiple and recurring appointments, streamlining the scheduling process and reducing errors.
- Introducing Customizable Appointment Types
Enabling clinicians to specify what kind of patients they want to see at certain times, improving the efficiency of the scheduling process. - Improving Appointment Reminders and Notifications
Incorporating features like automated reminders via SMS or email, ensuring that patients attend their scheduled appointments. - Continuously Monitoring and Refining the System
Continuously monitoring and refining the system by soliciting feedback from patients and clinicians and analyzing usage data to identify areas for improvement.
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