Kindred Healthcare | Work at Manifold | Product design
Revolutionizing patient
engagement in rehabilitation
Background
Patient engagement solutions are critical; Studies show that patients have better outcomes when healthcare providers engage them throughout their healthcare journey. But, the healthcare provider only engaged patients when they sought care, and, crucial feedback uncovered that patients and their loved ones were confused by the technical language being used to describe their rehab performance. Without a patient-facing app and clear, understandable language, the provider had no way to communicate information regularly with patients and family or build direct relationships when patients weren’t in their care.
RehabTracker is a mobile application designed to revolutionize patient engagement within rehab stays at Kindred Healthcare and its affiliated facilities. The platform enables therapists to track patients' activities of daily living, distance covered, and transfers using a patient-centric scoring system.
Problem
Observations revealed a disconnect between patients' rehabilitation exercises and their understanding of how these activities contribute to their overarching life goals. This gap highlighted the need for a more personalized and patient-centric approach to rehabilitation.
When a therapist selects a new patient in RT to commence their rehabilitation journey, a modal will appear prompting the therapist to input a list of patient goals. Often, patients present broad goals like “I want to improve my memory.” However, delving deeper to grasp the patients' needs can transform these goals into more practical and meaningful real-world objectives. For instance, “I aim to remember to take my morning pills without relying on reminders from my spouse.
Lack of clarity for therapists
Therapists frequently face a lack of clarity regarding what patients aim to achieve before their discharge.
Patient understanding gap
Patients express broad goals without a detailed understanding of how rehab exercises can contribute to achieving those objectives.
Goal
The opportunity was to allow therapists to start thinking about patients as more than just data points and entries in electronic medical records. After initial research, we noticed recently that asking “What matters to you?” (WMTY) has become a popular way of approaching the implementation of patient-centered care. To achieve this, we plan to introduce a survey comprising thoughtful questions designed to provide therapists with a deeper insight into their patients. This understanding will enable the translation of broad objectives into precise, practical, and meaningful goals that align seamlessly with patients' everyday realities and obstacles.
We saw that this would increase patient engagement when therapists start to think about the patient experience and goals more empathetically.
Therapist 👨⚕️
I want to explain therapy to patients in a way they understand so that they engage with therapy thereby providing better outcomes.
Patient 🤒
I want to understand why I am doing all these exercises so that I can see why I am doing all these invasive, painful exercises.
User Journey
We also conducted a comprehensive analysis of our existing app structure and user journey to identify suitable integration points for the survey feature to help us understand how the survey can seamlessly fit into the app without disrupting the user experience.
Solution #1
Integrate WMTY into Assessments
Ask patients about their personal goals, values, and what activities are important to them. Use this information to establish a personalized connection between rehabilitation exercises and the patient's broader life goals. We also decided to have a free text note so the therapist can add any additional important notes.
Solution #2
Goal Setting Conversations
Tailored exercise plans to align with each patient's goals. For example, if a patient says “I want to dance at my daughter’s wedding,” the therapist would “connect” the goal to “walking”, “stairs” and a few other FIM/GG scores that are required to be at a certain level for the patient to be able to dance. While doing this, the therapist can provide context for each exercise, explaining how it relates to their specific goals.
Solution #3
Visual Progress Tracking
Providing a clear and comprehensive snapshot of the patient's journey toward their individual goals. Therapists can seamlessly adjust and customize rehabilitation plans during regular check-ins, ensuring ongoing alignment with evolving patient needs. The Visual Progress Tracking feature transforms raw data into meaningful insights, empowering patients to actively engage in their rehabilitation by visually connecting therapeutic exercises to their overarching life goals.
