Template selector
A feature that allows physicians to select and manage the templates they use most frequently
With the Affordable Care Act increasing requirements for standardized documentation across the medical field, physicians were frustrated with the profusion of notes they needed to take and wanted features that would help them document quickly so they could get back to direct patient care.
DETAILS
Company
Siemens Healthcare (later acquired by Cerner Corporation)
Requirements
- Search / filter for medical documentation templates
- Open templates from the documentation interface
- Mark frequently used templates as favorites
- Provide quick access to favorite templates in the documentation interface
- Manage different sections of favorites for different patient groups
My Involvement
- Role : Sole designer
- Project Length : 2 months
Scale : A new feature in a browser-based electronic medical record application
Story
Our electronic medical record (EMR) system had a problem: with the rise of standardized billing and documentation requirements as part of the Affordable Care Act, our physicians were increasingly asking for better tools to help them record patient interactions faster. The computer had become a burden, slowing them down instead of helping them provide better care to more people. Though the EMR helped ensure legal compliance, many doctors wished they could go back to hand-written notes.
The template selection feature was one piece of a strategy that aimed to speed up processes that had become mired in mandated inefficiencies. Though the documentation itself couldn't require less, the interface could help doctors move faster by streamlining repetitive tasks and getting to necessary information more efficiently.
For this effort, I worked with the company's in-house physicians and nurses to identify pain points that could be eased. In the case of the template selector, the number of pre-made document templates had ballooned in recent years, and medical providers were complaining that they couldn't find the few that they used most commonly for their specialized roles. To help with this problem, I revised the layout of the selection interface and incorporated the ability to add and manage favorites.
I brought the design to customers, who gave their input and insisted that they wanted the feature as soon as possible. Though some parts of the proposed design (such as the drag-and-drop functionality for sections) had to be deferred to a later development cycle due to the urgency of the need, the initial release was broadly adopted and received praise when customers were interviewed in subsequent user-experience research.
