Revamping Epic EMR for Emergency Physicians

Streamlining Clinical Workflows and Enhancing Patient Care in High-Stress Healthcare Settings

Role:

Product Designer, UX researcher

Timeline

8 weeks

Tools

Figma, Fig jam

Skills

UX Design, UX Research, User Testing

Streamline patient information to reduce cognitive load during multitasking.

Improve note-taking systems to combine the simplicity of manual with digital organization.

Optimize medication ordering processes

Enhance real-time communication and task reminders

An Overview:

The Problem:

To support emergency medicine physicians who manage multiple patients and critical decisions under pressure, my team remodelled Epic EMR's user experience—focusing on streamlined workflows, intuitive interface design, and rapid information accessibility. As the UX designer, I led user research, created wireframes and interactive prototypes, facilitated iterative user testing with stakeholders, and incorporated their feedback into the final validated design.

Emergency physicians working in fast-paced emergency departments struggle to accurately manage multiple patients' critical medical information during high-pressure situations. Our research highlighted that these high-pressure situations cause heightened cognitive load, frequently resulting in critical errors like missed medication orders, incomplete test requests, and overlooked patient details. These errors not only compromise patient safety but also intensify physicians' personal stress, frustration, and emotional exhaustion during critical moments of patient care.

Discovery:

Design Process:

User Research - Initial Interviews and Findings:

Time to dig deep. We conducted stakeholder interviews with emergency physicians and nurses to better understand their workflows, tools, and pain points when using Epic EMR.

Key Insights:

Primary Tools: Physicians and nurses rely on Epic EMR, pagers, and Epic Secure Chat for patient management. Epic EMR provides essential features like schedules, test orders, results review, and "smart phrases" for quick charting.
Note-Taking Preferences: Physicians often prefer pen-and-paper note-taking for its speed, but during busy periods, handwritten notes become cluttered and hard to read.
Peak Multitasking Stress: Managing multiple patients simultaneously is the most stressful part of the day, leading to errors such as missed orders, incomplete tests, and forgotten details.
Importance of Nursing Support: Proactive nurses who remind physicians of pending tasks significantly reduce stress and errors, improving workflow efficiency and patient safety.

Our Goals for Design:

User Research - Initial Interviews and Findings:

Time to dig deep. We conducted stakeholder interviews with emergency physicians and nurses to better understand their workflows, tools, and pain points when using Epic EMR.

Key Insights:

Primary Tools: Physicians and nurses rely on Epic EMR, pagers, and Epic Secure Chat for patient management. Epic EMR provides essential features like schedules, test orders, results review, and "smart phrases" for quick charting.
Note-Taking Preferences: Physicians often prefer pen-and-paper note-taking for its speed, but during busy periods, handwritten notes become cluttered and hard to read.
Peak Multitasking Stress: Managing multiple patients simultaneously is the most stressful part of the day, leading to errors such as missed orders, incomplete tests, and forgotten details.
Importance of Nursing Support: Proactive nurses who remind physicians of pending tasks significantly reduce stress and errors, improving workflow efficiency and patient safety.

Our Goals for Design:

User Research - Initial Interviews and Findings:

Time to dig deep. We conducted stakeholder interviews with emergency physicians and nurses to better understand their workflows, tools, and pain points when using Epic EMR.

Key Insights:

Primary Tools: Physicians and nurses rely on Epic EMR, pagers, and Epic Secure Chat for patient management. Epic EMR provides essential features like schedules, test orders, results review, and "smart phrases" for quick charting.
Note-Taking Preferences: Physicians often prefer pen-and-paper note-taking for its speed, but during busy periods, handwritten notes become cluttered and hard to read.
Peak Multitasking Stress: Managing multiple patients simultaneously is the most stressful part of the day, leading to errors such as missed orders, incomplete tests, and forgotten details.
Importance of Nursing Support: Proactive nurses who remind physicians of pending tasks significantly reduce stress and errors, improving workflow efficiency and patient safety.

Our Goals for Design:

Solution Ideation - User personas, competitive audit, initial problem statement:

Sketching and Lo-Fidelity Wireframes:

2.a. Sketching and Wireframing:

Through our interviews, we also identified two critical pain points for emergency physicians: inefficiencies in note-taking and challenges in prescribing medications. To address these, we designed two user flows that streamline these processes, focusing on improving task efficiency.

Competitive Audit:

A competitive audit revealed that existing tools focus on individual features (e.g., shortcuts or messaging) but lack seamless integration, leading to fragmented workflows and inefficiencies.

Thus, we reached our initial problem statement:

Emergency doctors experience stress when they need to efficiently understand and juggle multiple patient's information and provide timely care during time-sensitive and life-saving emergencies.

Competitive Audit:

A competitive audit revealed that existing tools focus on individual features (e.g., shortcuts or messaging) but lack seamless integration, leading to fragmented workflows and inefficiencies.

Thus, we reached our initial problem statement:

Emergency doctors experience stress when they need to efficiently understand and juggle multiple patient's information and provide timely care during time-sensitive and life-saving emergencies.

Competitive Audit:

A competitive audit revealed that existing tools focus on individual features (e.g., shortcuts or messaging) but lack seamless integration, leading to fragmented workflows and inefficiencies.

Thus, we reached our initial problem statement:

Emergency doctors experience stress when they need to efficiently understand and juggle multiple patient's information and provide timely care during time-sensitive and life-saving emergencies.

we identified two key personas to guide our design process. These personas highlight the need for solutions that address multitasking, task prioritization, and communication challenges, ensuring a seamless workflow for both roles.

To address the pain points identified in our research, we began by sketching initial concepts for the Dashboard, Notes, and Orders pages. These sketches allowed us to explore different layouts and workflows, focusing on simplifying navigation and improving task efficiency. They served as a foundation for creating low-fidelity wireframes, which we used to test multiple variations of our prototypes.

Using the sketches as a guide, we created low-fidelity wireframes to test multiple variations of our prototypes for the Dashboard, Notes, and Orders pages. We evaluated how well each design aligned with user needs and workflows. Feedback from two stakeholders—a 58-year-old emergency physician and a 24-year-old certified nurse assistant—revealed key areas for improvement, particularly around navigation, layout clarity, and feature functionality.

✅Check mark: Interface does have this feature

⚠️Warning icon: Has issues

❌ icon: Doesn’t have this feature

Key Insights + Iterations:

Dashboard Feedback:
Users found the layout clean but overwhelming due to too many cards. They suggested removing the Agenda card, enhancing the Patient List card, and adding filtering capabilities for better organization.

Iteration - Removed the Agenda card, enhanced the Patient List card, introduced a separate "Tasks" card, added filtering capabilities for patient orders, and improved button visibility with hover labels.

Orders Feedback:
Users valued the tabbed navigation but requested categorized dropdown lists for medications and procedures. They also suggested adding subcategories and organizing saved order sets for faster access.

Iteration - Added categorized dropdown lists, introduced subcategories for orders, and included a "Saved Order Sets" section with filtering options.

Notes Feedback:
Participants found the Notes page cluttered and confusing, particularly in distinguishing between adding a note and a comment. They emphasized the need for smart phrases to streamline note-taking.

Iteration - Clarified the interface for adding notes, incorporated smart phrases for auto-populating data, and improved overall organization to reduce clutter.

Key Insights + Iterations:

Iteration - Removed the Agenda card, enhanced the Patient List card, introduced a separate "Tasks" card, added filtering capabilities for patient orders, and improved button visibility with hover labels.

Iteration - Added categorized dropdown lists, introduced subcategories for orders, and included a "Saved Order Sets" section with filtering options.

Iteration - Clarified the interface for adding notes, incorporated smart phrases for auto-populating data, and improved overall organization to reduce clutter.

Key Insights + Iterations:

Iteration - Removed the Agenda card, enhanced the Patient List card, introduced a separate "Tasks" card, added filtering capabilities for patient orders, and improved button visibility with hover labels.

Iteration - Added categorized dropdown lists, introduced subcategories for orders, and included a "Saved Order Sets" section with filtering options.

Iteration - Clarified the interface for adding notes, incorporated smart phrases for auto-populating data, and improved overall organization to reduce clutter.

3.a. Branding + Usability Testing:

We chose to align our design with Epic's branding to ensure familiarity and seamless integration for users

Transitioning From Low-Fidelity to High-Fidelity Prototypes
Our design process evolved through two further rounds of user feedback and usability testing. The iterations made ensured that our final designs aligned with user needs.

Final Screens:

Reflection:

Working on this case study was an incredibly enriching experience that deepened my understanding of the design process within the healthcare sector. Collaborating with emergency healthcare professionals allowed me to gain valuable insights into their daily challenges and the critical importance of an intuitive user interface. One of the key struggles me and my team faced was balancing a cleaner design with the users' preference for having all relevant information available in one place. Many users expressed a strong familiarity with Epic's current design, which often features densely packed information, making it challenging to simplify and streamline while still meeting their needs.

As we transitioned from low-fidelity sketches to high-fidelity prototypes, the iterative design process became crucial. Each round of user feedback helped us refine our ideas, and it became clear that users valued having comprehensive information readily accessible, even if it meant sacrificing some visual simplicity. This insight reinforced the importance of prioritizing user familiarity and comfort with the existing system, ultimately leading us to incorporate elements that echoed Epic’s design language while still aiming for improvements in usability.

This project emphasized the significance of being open to feedback and adapting our designs based on user needs. It reiterated how successful design is not just about aesthetics; it’s about creating practical solutions that enhance real-world outcomes. Overall, I am excited to carry these lessons into future projects, continually focusing on user-centered design and its potential to improve efficiency and care in the ever-evolving healthcare landscape.

I’m incredibly grateful to my amazing team members (listed below), whose creativity and expertise made this project what it is!

Members: Abigail Guzman, Hana-Ton-Nu, Shreya Sharma