Aging Rural Healthcare
Addressing the needs of Aging Rural Patients
How might we…
Continue to build relationships between Carle and the community?
Description:
While working at the Siebel Center for Design (SCD), we partnered with Carle Health System, a local central Illinois hospital system to take a human-centered approach to understand the needs of elderly and rural patients. We are focused our efforts on patients who are 75 years or older with 2 or more chronic conditions, and must travel 25 miles or more to receive care from a hospital that can handle the acuity of their conditions.
Role
Design Strategist, Team Lead, Lead Interviewer
Solution:
We focused on trust. Trust is the social currency of small, rural communities. Because of this, we decided that through various design concepts, we would help Carle focus on continuing to build trust in these small, rural communities.
Project Brief and Research
SCD and Carle spent five months exploring healthcare for older adults in three rural communities.
Recruitment of Seniors
We kicked off this project with Carle stakeholders to determine who we were going to speak to and where we were going to recruit from. Carle stakeholders determined we should focus on people who are 75 years or older with two or more chronic conditions. University of Illinois OPRS determined this project was IRB exempt.
Rural Towns for Recruitment
With the guidance of Carle stakeholders, we were asked to focus on two towns, Hoopeston and Olney, both part of the Rural Health Alliance. We also included Lexington for its smaller size and location outside of Carle’s current region of care for additional perspective.
Research Techniques
In-depth interviews, often performed in participant’s homes, were the primary means of gathering data. Several participants also completed a Circle of Care Activity to map out this individuals active role in managing their health. Shadowing a meal delivery service also contributed to our research. Co-creation sessions with Carle stakeholders and Carle Illinois College of Medicine students informed our concept development.
Insights
Grow with the Community
Encourage conversation
Honor the patient’s perspective
Value face to face interactions
User Journey
From our research, we determined four moments that matter the most when building trust with new patients, specifically in rural areas.
Design Concepts
After synthezing our research findings, the team and I came up with a variety of design concepts we felt would be easily implementable throughout the Carle health system. The following illustrations were used to help tell the story of how these concepts would work in building trust with these communities.
