Building Our First Clinical Service Map
Scenario
When I was asked to support the project, our clinical staff were doing incredible work to help support patients, however the information for different pathways were scattered in various places. Staff needed an easy-to-use guide with all information where to send a patient across the patient journey.
The Challenge
The patient pathways often took longer because processes were not clearly visible.
Information lived in files scattered in various locations, emails and the memory of long-standing staff.
New staff struggled to understand the patient pathway and the processes associated with each part of the pathway.
The Turning Point
I was asked to create a Clinical Service Map – a single visual guide that all staff could use to:
Have a visual guide of the patient pathway.
Understand the process of each part of the pathway.
Understand eligibility, process and point of contacts.
Clickable buttons that would lead to appropriate page of information.
Workflow
Identifying IT systems: Used PowerPoint and AdobePDF, two systems we already had so we did not need to purchase additional systems. In PowerPoint I was able to input information and link text boxes to different pages. When converted to AdobePDF, this would create a clickable button.
Mapping out the patient pathway: A senior clinical staff member supported in mapping out the clinical patient pathway. Mapped out the flow chart online.
Designing: Created a simple layout for each page. Created clickable buttons for easy-to-use navigation.
Validating: Sent it to the clinical team to check for missing information and check it was easy for them to use.
Publishing: Published final version as an Interactive PDF. Saved it in the Staff Intranet and was shared to all staff.
Maintaining the Map: The Map is manually updated in real time whenever there is a change to the patient pathway. The updated version is always saved in the Staff Intranet and contains a version control.
Result
New staff are able be onboarded faster and feel more confident.
Staff are able see at a glance the pathway and access the key guides for each part of the pathway.
Clinical staff are able to track down the required information faster which means less admin time and more time for clinical duties.