Turning hospital care into a trusted digital journey

Goal

The work aimed to turn the patient experience into a trusted digital hub, reducing operational friction (front desk, paperwork, rework) while increasing predictability and patient autonomy across the care journey.

Problem

• Manual front-desk processes creating high friction at check-in.

• Long queues and low predictability, increasing patient anxiety and burdening staff.

• Disconnected services (appointments, inpatient experience, documents), forcing patients through multiple steps and channels.

My role

I worked as a Product Designer, contributing to:

• prioritizing the highest-impact journeys (volume × pain × operational cost);

• defining end-to-end flows and mobile UI with design-system consistency;

• aligning stakeholders across operations and product to speed up decisions;

• defining metrics and quality criteria (clarity, predictability, reduced effort).

Product timeline

2021 | Product foundation - Reducing uncertainty

The team established the app’s core to reduce front-desk friction and increase predictability:

• pre check-in to shorten desk time and avoid repeated data entry;

• queue status tracking to make progress and next steps transparent;

• information architecture and navigation patterns to lower cognitive load.

2021–2022 | Value expansion (autonomy and continuity)

The team expanded the app to cover key journey domains:

• digital meal ordering for inpatients (selection and edits via the app);

• remote care with better continuity across touchpoints;

• exams and documents with secure, centralized access.

2022 | Consolidation

The app became the central digital touchpoint, reducing reliance on paper and in-person support for recurring tasks.

Design decisions

1. Predictability as a product feature (queue + check-in)
   I pushed the experience toward clear statuses and next steps to reduce uncertainty:

• explicit state messages (e.g., “started”, “waiting to be called”, “check-in completed”);

• strong confirmations for critical actions;

• guidance centered on what the patient should do now (not internal processes).

2. Journey-based information architecture (not org-based)
   I advocated for navigation built around patient tasks, rather than internal hospital categories:

• structure by journey moments (before/during/after);

• plain-language labels and action-oriented microcopy;

• fewer alternative paths to the same action to reduce confusion and errors.

3. Guardrails to reduce errors and rework
   I prioritized UI decisions that lowered operational exceptions and support load:

• in-context instructions and validation timing (not only at error state);

• clear hierarchy and unambiguous CTAs;

• consistent patterns across features so learnings transfer.

Trade-off: I recommended shipping fewer flows early, but with higher robustness in critical moments, rather than expanding scope quickly and creating inconsistency.

Outcomes

• 30% reduction in average waiting time at reception (before/after comparison linked to pre check-in and queue tracking).

• 10,000+ digital menus created/edited by patients and companions.

• 3,000+ appointments scheduled via the app.

• 1.5M exams available within the platform.

Results

Key learnings

• In healthcare, predictability is part of care.

• Scale happens when the product reduces friction for patients and reduces exceptions for operations.