athenaClinicals for Hospitals
New product from scratch • Desktop application
Problem
athenahealth urgently needed to establish a presence in the hospital EHR market. Using our existing ambulatory EHR as a skeleton, we significantly expanded its feature set to handle the complexity of sicker hospital patients.
We set a goal to go live with an MVP product in under a year, for our target market of small rural and critical access hospitals. Since many users move between the hospital and clinic, product and interaction consistency with athenaClinicals was imperative.
My role on the project
Leadership
Collaborated with Dev and Product Leads to define the overall scope and break it into achievable sprint milestones. As the project grew, led the UX team, assigning and prioritizing work and providing direction.
Strategy
Created a Northstar product vision and developed artifacts used to generate industry buzz and sales. Defined Design Principles to align project direction and guide our decisions.
Interaction Design
Designed workflows tailored to the specific needs of high complexity, high-risk patients. Worked closely with the Patient Safety team to ensure that was our top priority.
User Research
Observed physicians and support staff providing patient care to understand their workflows and needs. Participated in several clients “Go Lives” to witness their initial use and uncover issues.
Results
athenaClinicals for Hospitals launched successfully within our goal time frame, and one year later was installed in over 40 hospitals
The sales team exceeded their preliminary goals by over 25% (52 hospitals sold in 2016), citing superior user experience and usability as key contributing factors
Clinicians safely and effectively treated hospitalized patients with minimal training
Northstar Vision
Leveraging the work we’d done on athenaClinicals, I created conceptual designs to align internal stakeholders with the product direction and allow the sales team to sell the product before it existed.
Here are a few screens that highlight some of the many differences between ambulatory and hospital needs.
Dashboard: Inbox, Patient List and athenaText - Clinicians review their patient census, access patient charts, and are notified of tasks assigned to them.
Admission HPI (History of Present Illness) - When a patient is admitted to the hospital, the doctor documents the patient’s description of their symptoms or illness and queues up medication orders.
MAR (Medication Administration Record) - After a nurse administers medications, they document what was given in the MAR.
Interaction Design
I explored workflows to improve the speed, efficacy, and safety of ordering medications— one of a doctor’s most common and most dangerous workflows.
Could we accelerate the order process by knowing what doctors usually order?
How could the system support finding vs. searching?
When adding details to the medication order, what differences need to be considered for PRN (as needed) drugs?
Product Screen Caps
Patient Briefing - Clinicians can see at a glance what is happening with the patient.
Lab Results Over Time - Clinicians review the most recent lab results and see how the patient is trending.
Medication Reconciliation - Prior to ordering, doctors must reconcile the patient’s home medications and determine which to continue, discontinue or substitute.
Medication Order Entry - Doctors place medication orders, including all the details needed to ensure safe and effective treatment.
Medication Order Confirmation - Prior to signing the orders, doctors review them for accuracy.
Order View - After orders have been signed, they become active and can be carried out by the clinical staff.
