IQUE - A queuing application for healthcare personnel: For a more efficient workflow at the Emergency ward & Obstetrics and Gynaecology department of Östra Hospital
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Industrial design engineering (MPDES), MSc
Publicerad
2022
Författare
Forssberg, Malin
Svensson, Malin
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
As the need for healthcare increases, the pressure on the healthcare organization is
constantly growing. Today, Swedish healthcare lacks resources, and the implementation
of digital health information services is considered slow compared to other industries.
Currently, analogue ways of working are still used, and digitalization within several areas
could facilitate the healthcare personnel in their work.
This Master’s Thesis aims to investigate if the workflow at the Emergency ward, and the
Obstetrics and Gynaecology department of Östra Hospital, can be improved with
digitalization of the current systems. Specifically, looking at the internal queueing systems
related to consultation at the Emergency ward, and the orders of anaesthesia at the
Obstetrics and Gynaecology department. The user groups focused on are the doctors and
consultants at the Emergency ward, as well as the midwives and anaesthesiologists at the
Obstetrics and Gynaecology department. Further, the goal is to improve efficiency,
cooperation and communication as well as free up resources.
In order to investigate the aim, four main phases have been carried out. In the first phase,
the current systems and problem areas have been examined, by performing user studies
at Östra Hospital, as well as sending out surveys to additional hospitals. The studies
contributed to an understanding of the user needs and resulted in a requirement
specification. The second phase included concept development, where ideation,
brainstorming and iteration resulted in four concepts for each department. The concepts
were tweaked and prototyped in the software Figma. The third phase included evaluation
with the users, using the prototypes, together with a theoretical evaluation. The insights
were analysed, and the final concept was developed, in the fourth phase.
From the user studies, it could be seen that the majority of the participants were pleased
with the current systems of today. However, several of the participants in the Emergency
ward were positive about trying something new. At the Obstetrics and Gynaecology ward,
the midwives believed the phone communication with the anaesthesiologists was crucial.
Due to this, they did not believe digitalization of the system was necessary. However, the
majority of the anaesthesiologists believed a digitalized system would make the process
more efficient as well as patient safe.
The final outcome of the project is a queueing application called IQUE. It provides support
and an overview of the queue for the consultants and anaesthesiologists, enabling the
doctors to keep working while still being positioned in the queue, and provides
transparency for the midwives of the Maternity wards. To conclude, IQUE is a digital tool
that might help healthcare personnel to perform their work more efficiently. However, the
solution needs to be further tested by the users in the real user environment.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
: healthcare, digitalization, user experience, digital design, the design process, user studies, prototyping.