A Top 5 Health System Scales Online Scheduling – Validating Research-informed Approaches

Patients Scheduled More Appointments Online with a Strategic, User-centered Approach

Forge Harmonic blends three worlds – psychology, technology, and business – to help people create great products that increase revenue, decrease costs, improve employee morale, and maximize customer word-of-mouth. 

A leading U.S. health system worked with Forge Harmonic to understand patients’ needs and their experience with online scheduling. Together, they used those insights to redesign the online search and scheduling tool patients use to get the care they need. 

Through UX research and customer experience strategy, the company significantly increased the convenience of online appointment scheduling and modernized the consumer experience, making it easier for patients to get care.

"If your company needs an executive level thought partner, or turnkey UX research services, the Forge Harmonic team is great to work with and extremely talented. I can't sing their praises enough in terms of the quality of the work and how much I've appreciated their partnership."

— A.F., Healthcare Executive at Leading U.S. Health System

Research that’s worth the investment.

Patients Struggled to Find and Schedule Health Care Services

Patients at a leading U.S. health system wanted the convenience of scheduling appointments in real time. But the system’s online scheduling tool wasn’t designed to connect patients with a wide range of facilities and doctors easily.

“If you had a symptom and you didn’t know what kind of doctor you needed, you were out of luck,” said A.F., a healthcare executive for the health system. “It was the typical experience – designed from the healthcare perspective as opposed to the user perspective.”

The health system’s new Experience Research and Design team was asked to overhaul the search and scheduling tool. Eager to prove their worth and complete the project quickly, they wanted an expert who could jump in, conduct research, and make recommendations to inform a human-centered approach to design. 

After hearing Danielle Cooley speak at an event, A.F. wanted Forge Harmonic on the job.

Patient Perspectives Inform Top Notch Online Tool Design

Forge Harmonic quickly integrated with the health system team and identified what user research would be necessary to inform design.

Danielle and her team conducted two UX studies: (1) five 60-minute sessions observing how patients used the existing website; and (2) five 60-minute sessions evaluating a prototype of the redesigned online tool. 

“This level and kind of research made our approach so much more user-centric.” 

After each UX study, DGCooley & Co. impressed A.F. and his team by quickly making qualitative and quantitative recommendations to help shape the new tool. 

“She would do the research and then turn around a preliminary document in 48 hours so that we would get that real-time feedback to begin informing our design decisions,” said A.F.

UX Research Modernizes Patients’ Experience with Scheduling Care 

According to A.F., this effort “modernized the consumer experience and made it much easier for patients to get care.”

No matter what information patients use to search for the health services they need, they      are more successful at finding and scheduling care regardless of location or doctor.

This successful project also helped the health system see the value of investing in UX research and earned the Experience Research and Design department a noteworthy win. 

“Mark one up for the organization seeing the value of user-centered design.” 

A.F. attributes the success of this and other projects to Forge Harmonic’s specific framework. The framework ensures UX research and design teams do the right things at the right times to save time and resources.  

“I started using the framework as a way of explaining the process within our own organization because it’s extremely easy for stakeholders to grasp,” A.F. said. “But more importantly, it helps stakeholders buy into where we're playing and why we're playing there.”

Summary & Results

Forge Harmonic guided this leading healthcare system to gather user experience data, apply findings to product design, and made it easier for patients to access care. 

Patients Couldn’t Schedule Everything They Needed Online 

  • Patients struggled to find and schedule specific care services.

  • Search functionality was limited across facilities and doctors. 

  • The health system’s newest department needed to prove their value.

Customer Experience Strategy Informs Human-Centered Design

  • DGCooley & Co. quickly integrates with the internal team to map needs, process, and scope. 

  • Five 60-minute sessions observing use of existing online scheduling tool.

  • Five 60-minute sessions evaluating redesigned online tool prototype.

  • Qualitative and quantitative recommendations delivered to inform design. 

Patients Schedule More Appointments Than Ever

  • A refined search feature allows patients to find more accurate information.

  • Patients can now schedule appointments in more locations and with more doctors.

Health System Sees Tangible Value by Investing in User-Centered Design

  • The Experience Research and Design department showed immediate value.

  • The health system’s executive leadership felt confident investing in future UX research. 

  • The Experience Research and Design department has tripled in size the past four years.

  • The health system has looked to DGCooley & Co. for support on an additional 8 projects.