The 2020 pandemic accelerated a focus toward virtual health care. Throughout the shift, a human-centered approach to redesigning technology and the brand never lost its patient center.
Consumer Insights
Service Design
UX Design
UX Research
Consumer Insights Consultant
2020 to 2021
Accessing health care typically meant going somewhere. A waiting room, a front desk, a face-to-face visit. Patients trusted that rhythm, and health systems were built around it. Then, almost overnight, in-person care was no longer an option for many services, and everything that rhythm relied on had to change.
The pandemic left no time to plan slowly. Patients still needed care, and everyone had to approach it in new ways. Healthcare providers suddenly needed to keep working in different ways from home, without missing a beat. A health system had to reinvent care in weeks, and get it right the first time, because real health was on the line.
The work started by listening, even with the clock running. Careful studies asked patients what they needed to feel comfortable with virtual care. Just as important, a hard look at the workforce showed that thousands of people could keep serving patients while working from home. And for the moments patients would now receive care virtually, a warmer, friendlier mobile app took shape.
In the end, most healthcare services continued uninterrupted. Patients could see a caregiver from home through a virtual experience shaped around what they said they needed. The shift to virtual care happened fast and well. Around 4,000 employees kept working instead of being furloughed. And the warmer brand built in those weeks still welcomes 1.5 million patients each year on the mobile and web apps.
