Design Thinking for Innovation – Assignment 

 Challenge & Selection 

 I work as a management consultant in healthcare , and a large portion of my work focuses on helping   organisations and healthcare providers identify related to the redesign of care pathways in order to   deliver financial and operational improvements as well as improving quality of care delivered and   patient experience . Early in my career , our I was taught to take a strongly analytical approach . We   would analyse activity data , look for internal variation between providers ( e.g. length of stay   variation of discharged patients between doctors ) and push the design and problem solving back   onto the providers to solve . While incorporating the feedback of the clinicians is and will always   been essential , it often led to combative relationships and took too long to design and implement   effective solutions based on our project timelines . 

 On the specific project I will be referencing , we took a different approach . We sought to use   visualisation to help redesign the patient journey through drawings , flow charts , and diagrams   developed in a collaborative manner through working sessions with members of the staff ( and   patients ) from all levels ( from front line nurses to Executive Vice Presidents . Our goal to was   redesign the patient pathway through the internal medicine service , but changing the team   structures , escalation protocols , admission and discharge processes . This was no small undertaking   and was so multidimensional , touching the working lives of so many stakeholders , that it needed an   approach that would generate enthusiasm and buy - in in a way that allowed all members to visualise   how the future state would impact them in a positive manner . 

 Application 

 Healthcare can be tricky given the high stakes nature of making changes , and consequently , it is   imperative to get the buy - in of everyone possible in order for changes to be made in a safe and   enthusiastic manner . We used three workshops focused on various components of the patient   pathway : admission , the stay in hospital , and discharge ( with overlapping components ) . Rather than   focusing strictly on data tables , graphs and charts , we used a highly visual approach to help every   member visualise the current state and potential future states . 

 We mapped out the patient journey using post - it notes , process maps for staff at all levels , diagrams   depicting relevant patient areas ( e.g. the emergency department , the inpatient ward ) and how they   might be restructured to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing length of stay , decreasing costs , and   improving patient experience . 

 Visualising it in this way helped to garner significant feedback and involvement in the sessions to   identify the pros , cons , challenges of the current state and led to great input that helped informed   the ultimate solution ( that was delivered with great enthusiasm and success ) . 

 Insight and Approach 

 One of the key insights gleaned in the work when we visualised the processes from the perspective   of various stakeholder groups ( e.g. doctors , nurses , porters , cleaners ) was that everyone had a   distinct perception that was ultimately identified as a cause for communication breakdowns that are   so common in the hospital environment . By visualising everything from the patient ’s journey in the   emergency department , to the process map of contacting porters to help move patients from the   emergency department to the inpatient ward we were able to achieve a resounding consensus that   would not otherwise have been achievable ( in our traditional way of relying mostly on analytics and   disparate conversations ) .   While we ended up using analytics to help predict the impacts of the 

 agreed upon model on operational and financial metrics , we found visualising ( and to a degree ,   storytelling ) a far better introduction and base on which the project was delivered . This project truly   helped convert me into a believer of design thinking . The use of visualisation to guide working   sessions allowed me and my colleagues to develop a much greater understanding of the patient and   the healthcare workers for whom this could ultimately be a matter of life and death or at the very   least drastically impact their perceptions of their stay as a patient or their professional life . 

 Conclusion 

 This project helped me to understand the power of visualisation in delivering workshops aimed at   developing new processes and pathways . I have subsequently used it to great effect in subsequent   projects and I will never go back . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Design Thinking for Innovation – Assignment 

 Challenge & Selection 

 I work as a management consultant in healthcare , and a large portion of my work focuses on helping   organisations and healthcare providers identify related to the redesign of care pathways in order to   deliver financial and operational improvements as well as improving quality of care delivered and   patient experience . Early in my career , our I was taught to take a strongly analytical approach . We   would analyse activity data , look for internal variation between providers ( e.g. length of stay   variation of discharged patients between doctors ) and push the design and problem solving back   onto the providers to solve . While incorporating the feedback of the clinicians is and will always   been essential , it often led to combative relationships and took too long to design and implement   effective solutions based on our project timelines . 

 On the specific project I will be referencing , we took a different approach . We sought to use   visualisation to help redesign the patient journey through drawings , flow charts , and diagrams   developed in a collaborative manner through working sessions with members of the staff ( and   patients ) from all levels ( from front line nurses to Executive Vice Presidents . Our goal to was   redesign the patient pathway through the internal medicine service , but changing the team   structures , escalation protocols , admission and discharge processes . This was no small undertaking   and was so multidimensional , touching the working lives of so many stakeholders , that it needed an   approach that would generate enthusiasm and buy - in in a way that allowed all members to visualise   how the future state would impact them in a positive manner . 

 Application 

 Healthcare can be tricky given the high stakes nature of making changes , and consequently , it is   imperative to get the buy - in of everyone possible in order for changes to be made in a safe and   enthusiastic manner . We used three workshops focused on various components of the patient   pathway : admission , the stay in hospital , and discharge ( with overlapping components ) . Rather than   focusing strictly on data tables , graphs and charts , we used a highly visual approach to help every   member visualise the current state and potential future states . 

 We mapped out the patient journey using post - it notes , process maps for staff at all levels , diagrams   depicting relevant patient areas ( e.g. the emergency department , the inpatient ward ) and how they   might be restructured to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing length of stay , decreasing costs , and   improving patient experience . 

 Visualising it in this way helped to garner significant feedback and involvement in the sessions to   identify the pros , cons , challenges of the current state and led to great input that helped informed   the ultimate solution ( that was delivered with great enthusiasm and success ) . 

 Insight and Approach 

 One of the key insights gleaned in the work when we visualised the processes from the perspective   of various stakeholder groups ( e.g. doctors , nurses , porters , cleaners ) was that everyone had a   distinct perception that was ultimately identified as a cause for communication breakdowns that are   so common in the hospital environment . By visualising everything from the patient ’s journey in the   emergency department , to the process map of contacting porters to help move patients from the   emergency department to the inpatient ward we were able to achieve a resounding consensus that   would not otherwise have been achievable ( in our traditional way of relying mostly on analytics and   disparate conversations ) .   While we ended up using analytics to help predict the impacts of the 

 agreed upon model on operational and financial metrics , we found visualising ( and to a degree ,   storytelling ) a far better introduction and base on which the project was delivered . This project truly   helped convert me into a believer of design thinking . The use of visualisation to guide working   sessions allowed me and my colleagues to develop a much greater understanding of the patient and   the healthcare workers for whom this could ultimately be a matter of life and death or at the very   least drastically impact their perceptions of their stay as a patient or their professional life . 

 Conclusion 

 This project helped me to understand the power of visualisation in delivering workshops aimed at   developing new processes and pathways . I have subsequently used it to great effect in subsequent   projects and I will never go back .
### Output: 