Patients judge the care by everything around the care: the phone, the parking, the forms, the wait, and the bill.
Pick one kind of visit and walk it end to end with the people who run it. Most of what frustrates patients happens before and after the exam room, and most of it is cheap to fix.
Where do patients get frustrated?
- Finding you and booking. A website that does not say which location, a phone tree with seven options.
- Getting there. Parking, the right entrance, the right floor, the right desk.
- Forms. The same questions on paper, online, and again at the desk.
- Waiting. Not the wait itself so much as not knowing how long it will be.
- After. Results, follow-up, and a bill nobody can read.
What does service design do for a clinic?
It puts the whole visit on one wall: what the patient sees, what staff do behind the scenes, and the systems in between. Then the team ranks the problems by how often they happen and how hard they are to fix. A blueprint like that is how you find the step where three departments each assume someone else is handling it.
Where does AI help in patient experience?
In the paperwork around care: reminders, intake forms filled once and reused, answering routine questions after hours, and sorting messages to the right person. Keep a person on anything clinical, and on anything where the patient needs to feel heard.
Who should be in the room?
Front desk, a nurse, a scheduler, someone from billing, and one person who can approve changes. If you can, one or two patients.
I have done service design and UX research for Medtronic and Fairview Health Services. See service design.
Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.