How I Helped Reduce Patient Scheduling Times In Half

Folsom Psychology needed serious help; they operated a growing business on spreadsheets.
Folsom Hero ImageHow I Helped Reduce Patient Scheduling Times In Half
Case Study Summary

As lead UX/UI designer for Folsom Psychology, a multi-location mental-health practice running on six spreadsheets and seven tools, I researched and redesigned how admins match patients to providers. My "Smart Search" flow replaced four apps and cut the average new-patient scheduling call by 18 minutes, halving scheduling time and easing the call-back backlog.

Getting to know the client

Backstory of Folsom Psychology (FP)

Folsom Psychology is a woman owned and operated practice providing imperative mental health services for Coloradoans.
Their business has taken off in the last few years while their tools and processes struggle to keep up with the demand of their patient base. In order to continue growing the practice they also recognized the need to update their technology.
UX / UI SKILLSET LEVERAGED
In-depth Research
API Integration Research
User Interviews
Complex User Flows
Mid Fi Mockups
High Fi Mockups
UI Creation
UX / UI tools LEVERAGED
Note: Due to an on-going Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with Bowtie & our client, this project has been anonymized to 'Folsom Psychology'.
Three office locations
‍12 years in business
‍ 30+ practitioners
real world problems

The Client Challenge

When FP approached us to build a platform, they already had several tools integrated into their practice. Despite these tools, many processes were updated weekly on 6 different spread sheets.
One major opportunity for impact was matching a new patient with a provider. Folsom’s utmost concern is ensuring that the patient’s unique needs are matched to the best provider.
Starting from "perfect" and working backwards, I asked:

How can I reduce the cognitive load for Folsom's admins during the matching phase?
Client Challenge Cognitive Load
The ux process of discovery

Finding User Friction Areas

The client had a complex process and set of tools.
I needed to make sure we captured their business
as accurately as possible.
API Research
Performed extensive API comparison(s) with pre-existing  tools in a effort consolidate solutions.
Interviews
Conducted 7 total interviews capturing the process for patient on-boarding , admin hiring, provider hiring, and claims  and billing.
Data Models
Generated visual representation of Folsom's workflow and information architecture.
UX User Flow
User Interviews
The practice owner (Jennifer) & the practice manager (Katie)  sat down with me over five zoom calls to detail the patient user flow, resulting in 4 iterations. I needed to capture the entire process accurately.

Ultimately with budget and timeline in mind, I needed to pin-point where our proposed solution would make the most impact.
Admin's were flipping through 7 different software during one call.
The average call time for scheduling new patients: 20-30 minutes.
An average of 15 patients remain on the call-back waitlist at any given time.
from ux to ui

Diving Into Data Driven Product Design

We already had a design system in place which gave me the freedom to dig into how the UX data could inform and shape the UI components.
I had three key areas of focus when making UI design decisions for FP, based on key findings during UX research.
1. Reduce the number of applications admins had to use.
2. Reduce call times when scheduling patients.
3. Reduce admin call backlogs.
Where to even begin? I guess we can start with sketches.
I sketch early & often
Sketches have low consequences. They allow me to think about the product layout without using any tools that will just add complexities to my decision making.
‍
The sketches below are a bit abstract, but I start with such low fidelity because I want to focus on key areas of design.

My sketches are generally never shared with the team, they are simply for me to test out layout & structure.

I try to stay focused on shapes and structure, but you see how the color scheme palette is already a distraction?
From the client interviews I discovered that there were 10 main categories that admins used to sort and filter, so in the low fidelity mock-up I conceptualized 10 drop-down selections.

Throughout iteration I discovered that providing a screen with 10 drop downs was doing nothing to decrease the cognitive load, so I looked for another solution.

We'll call the sketch below, version 1.
Folsom Dropdown Idea
Let's call this one version 2. Mid-Fi testing showed that the three choices prior to search was confusing to users.

Closer to the final search bar the team and I agreed was the solution, but still needed to make changes.
After several iterations and still not convinced that drop downs were the answer, I came up with with "Smart Search" as a solution to remove as much cognitive load from the admins.

The search bar would only need 3 specific criteria that the admins most often use to automatically generate the most relevant provider matches, internally.

Below are early sketches of the final search bar once the team and I decided to pivot away from the drop downs, we'll call it version 3.
getting to good, not perfect
From sketches to UI
From sketch iterations to UI iterations.
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My philosophy is not to get it perfect the
first round, but rather, iterate my way to 'good'.

Perfectionism is the enemy of productivity.
Folsom Filter
Folsom Calendar
Folsom Filter
Folsom Smart Search
where the rubber meets the road

Challenges & Outcomes

User Testing proved that the ability for the AC's to see the best-ranked provider with the most availability was an imperative component to reducing cognitive load.
Instead of flipping between multiple programs and screens, they could focus all of their attention on the conversation with the patient.

4

Apps replaced by our solution

18

Avg. call reduction time in minutes

10

Avg. anxious patients removed from the call-back list
project challenges
Midway through designing the provider match page, we realized there was a key filtering section missing from the design in the data model. This created a fairly significant design change across multiple screens.
project changes
Migrating the project design system from Sketch to Figma, was a major change in the process. I spent a lot of effort cleaning the design system, once in Figma. The new design tool coupled with conversion issues was a major challenge.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the core problem Emily solved for Folsom Psychology?

Folsom Psychology was running a growing mental-health practice on 6 spreadsheets and 7 different tools, and admins were flipping through 7 software programs during a single scheduling call. I redesigned how admins match new patients to the right provider to reduce that cognitive load.

What was Emily's role on the project?

I was the lead UX/UI designer. I ran the research, built the user flows and data models, sketched and iterated the concepts, and created the UI components on an existing design system.

What was Emily's design process and approach?

I started with API research and 7 interviews covering onboarding, hiring, and billing, then detailed the patient flow with the practice owner and manager over five Zoom calls and 4 iterations. I sketched early and often, iterating from a 10-dropdown concept to a 'Smart Search' that needs only 3 criteria to surface the best provider matches.

What measurable impact did the redesign have?

My Smart Search solution replaced 4 apps, cut the average new-patient scheduling call by 18 minutes (halving scheduling time), and removed an average of 10 anxious patients from the call-back list.

What tools and methods did Emily use?

I leveraged in-depth and API integration research, user interviews, complex user flows, and mid- and high-fidelity mockups, working in Slack, Zeplin, Google Calendar, Notion, and Miro. Midway through, I migrated the project's design system from Sketch to Figma.