Use of Visualization in Improving the Discharge Process in a Hospital

Challenge

Optimising the patient discharge process is a key issue in hospitals. Often, there is a significant  delay between the decision for discharge and the completion of the discharge proceedings.  Thus, the patient is not able to go home on time. I had been assigned the task of improving  the discharge process. There are many procedures which form a part of the discharge process  and multiple stakeholders are involved. Many of these stakeholders work in silos and do not  have much insights about the parts of the discharge process which are not under their  purview. Since many of the tasks are interdependent, it is essential that the various  stakeholders work in a coordinate manner so the entire process can be streamlined.

Selection

I decided to use visualisation as a design thinking tool for addressing this challenge. I am a  very visual person. I find it easy to conceptualise and create visuals to depict complex  problems. As the last lecture video in week 1 puts it, visualization is a key component of the  way we communicate.  Whiteboard illustrations, flow charts, power point presentations and  animations were some of the potential visualisation tools. The business intelligence  dashboard available in the hospital was another potential candidate.

Application

An initial meeting was conducted which included participation by all stakeholders. The entire  discharge process was visualised using a whiteboard exercise. The various steps were  illustrated and their interrelationships were highlighted. Flow charts were used to depict  processes in detail. This helped the stakeholders to gain insights about the overall process.  They also became aware of the interdependence of the various processes. Communication  plans were created to promote interdepartmental communication. A data visualisation model  was created in the hospital business intelligence tool for displaying a real time view of the  movement of patients through the system. The visualisation highlighted bottlenecks in the  process.

Insight

The meeting was able to achieve its objective of increasing the coordination among the  various stakeholders. Everyone participated actively and brought forth various ideas for  improving the efficiency. The ideas generated were discussed among the participants to  further improve upon them. The whiteboard visualisations were modified and added upon  based on the feedback.

Approach

Overall, it was a very good experience in using visualisation in addressing this challenge. If I  had to address a similar challenge again, I would use visualisation because it was very effective  in illustrating the problem and to ensure comprehension among the various stakeholders.

