McKesson provides technological solutions for a broad range of healthcare providers. When McKesson approached Mad*Pow for help creating a mobile clinician application for visiting nurses, we knew that the critical first step was to figure out why McKesson solutions “weren’t working.”

To get a clearer idea of what a visiting nurse might face during a typical day, Mad*Pow sent a UX team into the field. Our CXO, Amy Cueva, went door to door with several visiting nurses in Springfield, MO. It didn’t take long for Amy to figure out that technology was making it harder for these practitioners to do their job. Nurses had to access patient records on a laptop, with a stylus. Finding a clean, flat surface might not be difficult in a hospital environment, but it can be a challenge in someone else’s Home. Patient data had to be entered in a specific order. And, certain data points had to be re-entered at each visit. For instance, a nurse visiting a blind patient would have to make a record of the patient’s blindness at every visit. All told, there were 120 questions that had to be answered every time a nurse made a home visit. Because of this, an in-home admission could take 2-3 hours. The current system did not have the ability to track trends. For example, if a patient had a very high blood pressure reading, the nurse could not easily see if it was the result of a steady increase over time or a one-time spike. Many of the nurses are also parents, doing their rounds during school hours. Come 2:30, they needed to be at school or at the bus stop, retrieving their children. Because it was so tedious and time-consuming to input patient data on the spot, many of the nurses would jot down notes and finish their data entry later in the day. Hours later, it wasn’t always easy to remember all of the pertinent details for each patient.

In addition to the technological challenges, the nurses we worked with faced an enormous amount of on-the-job stress.  Due to the current nursing shortage, they are often stretched to the limit. Hospice nurses have to deal with the fragile emotional state of their patients – and the patient’s family members. Some homebound patients are starved for human contact. Others may not want to open the door. You never know what you’ll face on any given day.

We brought peace into the room by creating an application that is both beautiful and functional. With soothing colors and a stunning design, we said to every person that uses the Extended Care Solutions Clinician App, “Your work matters. You deserve only the best.” The interface is intuitive and customizable, making it easy for users to enter data organically, in a flow that works for them. The application stores data, allowing the nurses to see trends over time. It’s also designed to be used with devices that contain cameras, so nurses can take pictures of their patients. This not only helps them if they want to type up notes after the home visit, it can also help them to – literally – put a name to a face. It’s a small touch, but one that can add an enormous dose of humanity in the midst of total chaos.

The solution is currently in development. When presented to the user community during the annual user conference and during usability testing it was received extremely well. The refined solution is accelerating McKesson’s competitive differentiation in the market place and is leading to a higher conversion rate for their sales team as well. The promise of the new system alone is leading to higher customer retention rates as well.