Designing Integrated Care
CLIENT
Mississauga-Halton Local Health Integration Network (MH-LHIN)
SERVICES
Contextual Interviews, Co-Design Workshops, Service Design
MY ROLE
UX Researcher & Service Designer
HIGHLIGHTS
First interprofessional, fully integrated health care centres to be launched in the Mississauga region
CHALLENGE
To better serve the diverse and complex health needs of the city of Mississauga, the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) planned to build three, multidisciplinary community health hubs, known as Care Point Health. Our team was tasked with understanding this population’s patient
and provider experiences and their needs related to health technology as we conceptualized a future service flow.
My role.
As Service Designer and UX Researcher:
conducted interviews with system stakeholders
facilitated, designed & planned two workshops of over 30 participants
conducted qualitative data analysis
generated research insights, report writing & presentation
designed a high-level service model
developed technology procurement recommendations
PROCESS
To address this challenge, secondary and primary research was conducted—involving patient, providers and systems stakeholders—to uncover their needs and better understand the potential service model. This formative research informed the activities for two large co-design workshops with over 70 patients and providers to understand how to structure the service design and integrate technologies to effectively achieve these goals.
Interviews & Workshops
To prepare for the workshops, we conducted literature research as well as interviews with local Mississauga patients, care providers and various system stakeholders (researchers, municipal health officials). This process laid the groundwork for our approach to designing the workshop activities and materials.
Two separate workshops were carried out—one focusing on the patient perspective and the other focusing on the care provider perspective.
Snapshots of the care provider workshop activities.
Data Analysis & Strategy Reports
The data from each of the workshops was then systematically transcribed and coded through thematic analysis to uncover sets of key insights and principles that would guide our strategic recommendations. Three overarching, high-level themes were identified, each with 3-4 relevant patient sub-themes and 3-4 relevant provider sub-themes. These themes act as guiding principles that enabled the MICC to implement their service in a way that meets the needs of their local patient and provider populations.
Additionally, these insights allowed our team to identify the most appropriate technology recommendations that would be required to support the wide range of user needs for this new service experience.
Snapshots of the technology recommendations included in the strategy report as a result of the patient & provider needs identified through data analysis.
Service Design
With all of the user needs and technology requirements identified, it was time to bring it all together into one cohesive story. The research themes and user needs were laid out across a conceptualized service experience timeline to showcase how and when these findings might actualize.
Snapshots of the service design that details out the identified patient and provider needs along a timeline to clearly display at which points in time when they must be addressed during the service experience.
A new model for care delivery.
OUTCOME
As a result, three major deliverables were produced to support the client in moving forward with developing their new centers with confidence. This included: a strategic report that outlined the core priorities of their future user groups, a high-level and detailed service flow showcasing the needs of patients and providers at each moment along the journey, as well as a set of detailed requirements for technology to support their procurement process.
Our team developed a new model for a high-level service flow
that would meet the various needs of the project stakeholders identified through the research. This model was illustrated in a way that could be followed to support stakeholder alignment, patient understanding and implementation.
This model also showcases where and when certain types of technology might be required to support the activities and needs of the service.
