Service Mapping
Rethinking Workflows and the Management of the Hospital’s Emergency Department
The Challenge
Managing admissions and treatment in the emergency department of one of the country’s largest hospitals is never simple. At Beilinson, however, additional barriers emerged that made it harder to ensure an efficient and smooth process - one that would allow patients to receive the excellent quality of care the staff is known for providing.
The emergency department is designed to operate and respond to a wide range of cases and challenges. It is divided into different units and requires flexibility, rapid response, accurate and swift diagnosis, and excellent communication with all hospital departments.
The staff operates across a large physical space that does not always meet their needs.
We were tasked with re-examining the workflows and team practices, and with proposing a framework for rethinking the processes - through the shared voices of all stakeholders, including hospital management, medical, nursing, administrative, and support staff, as well as subcontractors.
The Process
As designers working from the field, we wanted to better understand its requirements. Therefore, we began mapping the challenge through in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the process. In these qualitative interviews, we explored and learned about the field, the working approaches, and the non-negotiable priorities of the stakeholders. We listened with empathy and asked questions that allowed us to see the day-to-day reality, the difficulties, and the opportunities within each part of the system.
Listening to stakeholders is a central step, but there is nothing like seeing with your own eyes. Sometimes the inherent, almost trivial, gaps between vision and reality become visible. A professional guided field visit – during which we also asked in-depth questions, carried out visual and spatial mapping, and documented interface points or other significant findings – provided further insights. All of these findings were then gathered and translated into a structured workshop process.
The Outcome
To bring together the many teams and interfaces involved in the emergency department for a shared thinking process, we chose to conduct additional preliminary research, bringing in diverse examples from other contexts where crowd management is essential. After all, managing patient flow in a hospital emergency department is, by nature, just that. How does it look in an amusement park? In airports? In car service centers? And more…
The insights presented in this deck served as inspiration and helped us develop a slightly different perspective during the workshop.
The templates – the working sheets – guided a process of mapping pain points within the larger planning map, creating a clear link between each location and the challenge it represents.
Following this mapping, we led the teams into a deeper stage: prioritizing the pain points identified and moving forward into solution development.
The Impact
The great value of workshop-based work lies in the opportunity to collaborate in diverse teams, to hear and voice a wide range of perspectives. By the end of the day, this process made it possible to consolidate a single planning framework agreed upon by all working teams, integrating everyone’s ideas. This framework – or parts of it – can then be advanced for testing in the field. It mirrors the essence of any DESIGN THINKING process: starting from the field, generating ideas, and moving into practical pilot testing.
The workshop created momentum for change, fostering collaboration and building trust between different teams.
Because everyone took part in shaping and developing the process, they could also commit to its implementation. All voices were heard; the challenges and barriers raised by the teams were acknowledged and understood by neighboring interfaces.
Seeing the other, understanding, and accommodating difficulties generates higher quality work, trust, and efficiency – all in service of the shared goal: the quality of care and the quality of the workplace.
Contact Us
Noam@ClearVision.org.il
Tal Kamil - 972-50-7425303
Noam Werner - 972-52-3864893
Ramot Menashe 1924500
Every challenge is unique – and we craft a tailored visual thinking process that turns complexity into clarity and impact.
