Ensuring a new patient-tracking system met the needs of its end users

Why: As technical teams worked to create a minimally viable product for a much-needed redesign of the Veterans Health Administration’s patient advocate tracking system, we worked with Veterans Affairs patient advocate stakeholders to identify specific feature functions and to incorporate user feedback and preferences into the design solution.

What: After conducting research at 15 Veterans Affairs medical centers and clinics across the U.S., we created design solutions that we fielded directly with patient advocates and supervisors. The selected concept was a push notification feature that helps patient advocates with updates to their cases, enabling them to meet the Veterans Affairs mandate of resolving cases within seven days. The time savings resulting from this single feature could save the department up to $66,000 annually for every patient advocate.