Södersjukhuset
Project information
- Services: Contextual inquiry
- Client: Södersjukhuset
- Project date: 2014
Project in brief
Understand healthcare professionals work environment by observing them in their own natural context.
The mission
How do hospital staff experience the IT environment in their workplace?
On behalf of Södersjukhuset in Stockholm, we at Usability Partners had the opportunity to investigate this question with doctors, midwives and nurses from four different departments at the hospital. This was done through performing "IT-rounds" on systems used in the emergency department, intensive care, specialist maternity care and a surgical department. The goal was to get an overall picture of which parts of the IT systems were perceived as being problematic from a work environment perspective. Based on information collected from the "IT-rounds" with the hospital staff, we were to identify the problems and then propose areas of improvement regarding IT support.
Our work
In order to get a proper insight into how hospital staff really worked with the IT systems in the four different departments, we conducted a contextual study. This approach allowed for exploratory research rather than a formal evaluation of the hospital staff's work situation. This allowed us to get a credible picture and understanding of how staff actually work and how the IT systems they are equipped with support that work.
In consultation with union representatives and IT coordinators from SÖS, a total of 16 participants were recruited, all of whom were already employed at the hospital and worked as nurses, midwives and doctors in the four different departments.
The contextual study involved a large number of interviews and observations conducted in the real environment of the participants. This meant that we were able to follow normal working days of the hospital staff to see how they interacted with the IT systems. The advantage of this approach was that it allowed an insight into how their work was actually done, and not how it was supposed to be done. The observations were mixed with interview questions, where circumstances allowed. As the situation and work needs were different for each department, the questions could also differ. In total, we spent over 45 hours with the midwives, doctors and nurses at the hospital.
The result
Our study identified a variety of problem areas where there were negative effects on the working environment of the hospital staff. Some of the problems we identified were that patient data was often difficult or impossible to share between IT systems and it was also difficult to get a good overview of patient information. The systems required multiple logins/logouts and had poor and unintuitive layouts and/or visual designs. The results were compiled in a report where we also included suggestions for improvement. The report served as a basis for both hospital operations and the eHealth department at Södersjukhuset to make decisions about how to work with improvements.
"This was an incredibly important and rewarding project to work with. Our insights demonstrate that digital tools need to work better together to ease the burden on staff."
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