Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Screening Platform
Healthcare UI & UX Design
Team
4 people
Role
Lead Product Designer
Deliverables
Research Insight
Wireframes
Prototypes
In 2024, my team collaborated with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to help the Quality Assurance team redesign the Visitor Symptom Screening Platform. This platform aims to prevent sick caregivers and visitors from visiting CHOP, ultimately reducing the spread of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).
Project Brief: Redesign of the visitor symptom screening platform
CHOP is one of the largest children's hospitals in the United States with over 1 million visits annually. To ensure patient safety and improve patient outcomes, CHOP has partnered with my team to overhaul the visitor symptom screening platform. The goal is to increase platform utilization, prevent sick caregivers and visitors from entering the hospital, and ultimately reduce the spread of HAIs.
Challenge
The screening platform has been underutilized since its launch and has not delivered the anticipated benefits for CHOP. Many caregivers have entered the hospital without undergoing the screening process. Additionally, sick caregivers have been dishonest during the screening in order to gain entry to the hospital. Most importantly, the screening platform did not provide a viable solution for caregivers to attend to their children when they are unwell.
Contexts
What are hospital-acquired infections (HAIs)?
Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are nosocomially acquired infections that are typically not present or might be incubating at the time of admission. HAIs can be transmitted easily through airborne particles, physical contact, or droplets.
Severe Consequence of HAIs
$40.8 billion
additional medical costs yearly
HAIs in U.S. hospitals have direct medical costs of at least $28.4 billion each year. They also account for an additional $12.4 billion in costs to society from early deaths and lost productivity.
1.7 million
infections yearly
Every year 1.7 million patients in U.S. hospitals are infected with at least one type of HAIs.
99,000
deaths yearly
More than 99,000 U.S. hospital patients with HAIs died during their hospitalizations.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024.
Research
To begin my research, we identified three main questions that need to be answered:
Who are the main stakeholders in reducing HAIs?
What is the current screening experience for caregivers?
Why is the current screening process insufficient?
Step 01 Identify the Stakeholders
After conducting desk research and interviews with hospital staff and caregivers at CHOP, we have identified several key stakeholders for reducing HAIs. Among these stakeholders, caregivers are particularly crucial as they play a central role in making decisions about children's treatment and are the link between all other stakeholders.
Step 02 Understand the User Journey
The current screening user journey can be quite frustrating for caregivers who are sick. Often, they are unaware that they need to go through the screening process in advance and end up being surprised at the hospital gate after a long drive.
Step 03 Break Down the Root Problems
Root problem 1: The long travel time and high expenses associated with going to the hospital lead to caregivers being dishonest during the screening process.
Research Insight:
Most caregivers are already at the entrance
Many caregivers have driven a long way
Some caregivers visit from foreign states
Some caregivers pay for high travel expenses
“It’s a long drive to come here. To be honest, I’ll probably lie. I would still come in because I want to see my baby.”
Root problem 2: The lack of alternative methods for caring for pediatric patients compels caregivers to bypass the screening process.
Research Insight:
Most caregivers prioritize caring for children
Caregivers need to communicate with doctors
There are no alternative method for caring
Some caregivers would knowingly lie
“I would probably lie since I want to see my baby who is only six months old.”
Ideation & Design
Step 04 Brainstorm Various Solutions
We generated numerous potential solutions by brainstorming various ideas based on research insights and the "How Might We" (HMW) framework. Our aim was to assist sick caregivers in ensuring their children's safety without having to visit hospitals and risk spreading HAIs. Our ideas were not limited and spanned from enhancing digital experiences and offering extra services to developing new hardware devices.
Step 05 Distill the Ideas
We distilled the ideas based on their impact-effort ratio. Even though many ideas seem promising, we decided to focus on quick wins (high impact and low effort) to maximize the feasibility and viability of the project.
Step 06 Translate into Specific Features
We summarized the ideas into three specific features that we can start designing for the new screening platform.
We have also adjusted the user flow to ensure that users are aware of the dangers of HAIs and have the ability to set up alternative care methods directly within the same platform.
With alternative care methods, sick caregivers can now look after their kids without being physically present in the hospital and risking the spread of HAIs.
Prototype & Testing
Step 07 Conduct Testing and Gather Feedback
To ensure the feasibility of the new platform design and its effectiveness in changing user behaviors, we created low-fidelity prototypes. We conducted multiple rounds of user testing with caregivers, visitors, and hospital staff.
“I love that you can set up the virtual visit right in the app!”
“The convenience of forwarding the screening to others is appealing.”
Step 08 Translate Feedback into Actionable Insights
After receiving the feedback and testing data, we made a list of features that our users liked to ensure their inclusion in the final design. Additionally, we compiled a list of areas for improvement to guide our product iterations.
Features that Users Liked:
Like the daily text reminder
Like the screening forwarding feature
Like the seamless virtual visit setup
Like the language options
Like showing alternative caring methods before showing questions
Area for Improvement:
Add images for alternative caring methods
Add additional instructions for safe visits
Use Patient Care Code to set up virtual visit
Emphasize honest answers will not prevent them from caring for their children
Final Design
Scenario A Healthy Caregivers
The user flow for healthy caregivers is simple. After they answer all the questions and show no symptoms or risk of HAIs, the screening platform will produce a one-day pass for them to enter the hospital and attend to their kids.
Scenario B Caregivers with Symptoms
If caregivers show symptoms or risks of HAIs, the screening platform will guide them in selecting the appropriate alternative caregiving methods and help them set up within the same platform.
