CREATING AN IMPROVED BIRTH EXPERIENCE FOR FIRST TIME MOTHERS

A non-profit hospital supports new mothers at delivery

CHALLENGE

Carilion Hospital is the largest nonprofit hospital and Women’s Clinic in Southwest Virginia and the only one with a NICU. They have a big goal: to provide the best experience possible for new mothers. So effective is their support now that new mothers overwhelmingly choose to deliver their babies there. Taking into account changing demographics, a demand for alternative birth methods and an increase in natural birthing centers throughout the US, Carilion Clinic worked with PeopleLabs to better serve its  patients and to strengthen teamwork for a superior birthing experience. 

METHOD

PeopleLabs helped guide the Women’s Clinic to better leverage their knowledge, research skills and service design tools into more human centered work. The collaboration began with extensive field studies in the OBGYN unit, delivery rooms, check-in, and nursing workstations. The team visited expectant mothers in their own homes, held interviews, and shadowed the new mothers throughout the birthing process. They talked with husbands and partners to reveal what new mothers needed and with moms who had delivered their first babies at the hospital. They listened carefully to CRMH leadership, stakeholders, and experts in the field in addition to compiling competitive analysis, evaluating demographics, analyzing patient satisfaction scores and utilizing process improvement expertise.

 OUTCOME

Building on the insights and feedback from the field study, PeopleLabs collaborated with the Women’s Clinic to develop new ideas and methods. They prototyped 3 design directions and implemented over 15 solutions. These included the check-in process and location, new personnel roles, quiet hours, translation services, birthing tools, transitions from one floor to another, celebratory meals, activities for kids, chargers in waiting rooms, greeters, and a major redesign of the check-in location. In conjunction with the clinicians and patients PeopleLabs created a blueprint to map the entire process for an ideal experience beginning with how mothers decide where to deliver their babies to post delivery. The new experience is warm, calming, celebratory and personal. It gave CRMH the power to please and delight new mothers, further seating CRMH as the benchmark OB/GYN healthcare provider in their region. 

Exploring new innovation OPPORTUNITIES 

Help LiftMaster®identify new opportunities in the commercial warehouse space for expanding into new areas and establishing a new customer base

CHALLENGE

LiftMaster®is a maker of personal and commercial grade automatic garage door openers and accessories in the United States. While garages and warehouses have evolved over time, commercial warehouse doors have remained largely the same. Recognizing this gap, LiftMaster®, approached PeopleLabs to assist with the definition phase of their process.  The LiftMaster®teams aimed to expand Chamberlain’s offerings into a new category and position them as improvements for automation, efficiency, and safety.

 METHOD

 By conducting observational research, in-person interviews, task and video analysis of a specific portion of the dock door area, the people and door interactions, PeopleLabs set out to ensure a potential new vertical was warranted and desirable for warehouses. Using ethnographic research and task analysis to identify areas in commercial warehouses where there could be an opportunity to utilize existing technology, observations and onsite interviews were conducted in a high volume nationally recognized grocery warehouse around the dock doors. 

 Research was divided into six phases with toll gates after each phase to approve continuation of the next phase and provide learning opportunities, re-route research into useable insights and redefine next phase objectives and deliverables.

PeopleLabs then synthesized the data collected about the dock door space to determine new areas where LiftMaster® might develop new products.

 OUTCOME

 LiftMaster used the research by PeopleLabs® to create a customer need based product development and sales strategy that tied to the product functionality and resulting value proposition.

•  Identified a 40% reduction in worker pain points

• Identified areas for 33% decrease in task reduction