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Erin Wenig

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Want to deliver a better patient experience? Start by mapping the patient journey.
For health systems, delivering an excellent patient experience is an increasingly high priority.&nbsp;

Delve's experts in insights, strategy, design, and engineering can guide you through an end-to-end innovation process that delivers results.

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Not only does the ongoing shift towards value-based care offer healthcare organizations incentives for quality outcomes and increased patient satisfaction, but patients themselves are more informed and empowered than ever, with high expectations for the care they receive.
If delivering an outstanding patient experience is your goal, you need to actually understand your patients and their perspectives. Instead of relying solely on your organization’s or your staff’s viewpoints, or on what you think you know about the patient experience, create a journey map informed by real patient stories and information. This tangible, true-to-life record can lead to powerful insights and drive meaningful innovation.

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To jump to a particular section of the post, click a link below:&nbsp;
<ul><li><a href="#WhatIs">What Is a Patient Journey Map, and Who Needs One?</a></li><li><a href="#HowImprove">How Patient Journey Mapping Can Improve Patient Experience</a> Patient Journey Mapping, Step by Step: </li></ul>
<ul><li><a href="#Step1">Step 1: Define your purpose and scope</a></li><li><a href="#Step2">Step 2: Build data collection tools and gather patient information</a></li><li><a href="#Step3">Step 3: Organize collected data to identify a clear patient narrative</a></li><li><a href="#Step4">Step 4: Structure your map to ensure consistency in step detail</a></li><li><a href="#Step6">Step 5: Incorporate details into your map to add depth and context</a></li><li><a href="#Step6">Step 6: Add visual interest to your map to create an immersive, engaging experience</a><a href="#HowToUse"> </a></li><li><a href="#HowToUse">How to Use Your Patient Journey Map</a></li></ul>

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<h2 id="WhatIs">What is a Patient Journey Map, and Who Needs One? </h2>
A patient journey map is a visual representation of a patient's experience with a health system, from the first point of contact to the end of their care journey. It illustrates the various touchpoints and interactions that patients have, as well as their emotions, expectations, and needs. 
Stakeholders throughout the healthcare industry can benefit from the insights that patient journey mapping delivers: 
<ul><li>Hospital administrators use patient journey maps to evaluate the efficiency of hospital workflows, identify bottlenecks, and optimize resource allocation. </li><li>Healthcare planners and policy makers use patient journey maps to identify gaps in the healthcare system, understand the patient experience at different stages, and make informed decisions to improve access, quality, and affordability of care.</li><li>Healthcare providers use patient journey maps to understand the experiences and interactions patients have with the healthcare system, so they can streamline processes and improve care delivery. </li><li>Patient advocacy groups and consumer healthcare organizations utilize patient journey maps to understand the challenges faced by patients and identify areas where patient education and support services can be improved. </li><li>Medical researchers use patient journey maps to identify areas for further investigation or specific stages or touchpoints that require improvement or innovation. This can lead to the development of new interventions, technologies, or healthcare models. </li><li>Medical device and healthcare technology developers (e.g., developers of surgical tools and consumables, electronic health record systems, or telemedicine platforms) use patient journey maps to understand how their device or technology fits into the broader patient experience. This enables them to design user-friendly interfaces and seamless integration with existing systems. </li></ul>

For any of these stakeholders, a patient journey map can offer an alternate way to think about optimizing the patient experience: 
<ul><li>Rather than focusing on maximizing efficiency or cutting costs, you can view the entire process holistically. </li><li>Rather than focusing on technology as a driver of innovation, you focus on patient needs and preferences, enabling you to develop patient-centered innovations. </li><li>Focusing on how steps and touchpoints relate to pains, gains, and emotions helps you understand the patient mindset and highlights where you and your team can create the most impact.</li></ul>
In short, whatever your role in the healthcare industry, patient journey mapping can help you refocus improvement and innovation efforts back to the human beings you serve. By viewing your organization, products, and services through the lens of the patient, you can ensure that you are creating the right efficiencies, cutting the right costs, and implementing desired new technologies.

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<h2 id="HowImprove">How Patient Journey Mapping Can Improve Patient Experience</h2>
Here are six specific ways that patient journey mapping can help improve patient experience: 
<ol><li>Identify pain points. Patient journey mapping helps identify pain points such as long wait times, confusing information, or other barriers to care, so that existing issues can be addressed.</li><li>Improve patient satisfaction. Patient journey mapping provides health systems with insights into patients’ needs, wants, concerns, and preferences, so they can be better met. Addressing unmet needs can lead to better adherence to treatment plans and improved outcomes.</li><li>Improve communication. Instances where patients receive confusing information or are uninformed about treatment options can be easily seen on a journey map. By addressing communication gaps, you can improve your messaging and ensure patients understand their care.</li><li>Increase patient engagement. Some healthcare organizations create simplified versions of patient journey maps for patient education purposes. Helping patients understand what to expect, how to navigate the system effectively, and what resources are available to them can empower patients to take a more active role in their own care.</li><li>Enhance care coordination. Using a patient journey map to illustrate handoffs and follow-up can highlight instances where patients fall between the cracks. Addressing coordination gaps can improve the quality and safety of care, reduce errors, and improve patient outcomes.</li><li>Identify opportunities for innovation. A patient journey map can help identify spaces where new products and services can be implemented. Spot steps in the journey where no good solution exists? This is an area ripe for your organization to innovate.</li></ol>

When it comes to designing patient services for healthcare, sometimes we get in our own way when it comes to creating good design.

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<h2>Patient Journey Mapping, Step by Step </h2>
There are six key steps to developing an effective patient journey map. (Download our Patient Journey Mapping Template below.) 
<h3>Step 1: Define your purpose and scope.</h3>
Patient journey maps can zoom in on a specific set of interactions (e.g., scheduling an appointment) or zoom out to span a lifetime (e.g., chronic condition management). The scope of your map should be determined by your overall project goal.
To define your goal, begin by answering the following questions:
<ul><li>How will this map be used? Who will use it and when?</li><li>What knowledge gaps and hypothesis do I want to explore?</li><li>What type(s) of patients or conditions do I want to focus on?</li></ul>
Tip for success: Be prepared for and open to the unexpected. As you start data collection and analysis, you may discover your hypothesis was wrong or that opportunities may be different from what you imagined. Embrace the unknown – it can lead you to explore new avenues for innovation.

Download: Patient Journey Mapping Template

<h3>Step 2: Build data collection tools and gather patient information. </h3>
Once you have an idea of your map’s scope, you can identify what research approach is best. 
There is no one-size-fits-all method for collecting information and you may need to mix and match approaches to obtain the best results. 
Data collection approaches for patient journey maps include: 
<ul><li>Mining past research. Look at any past qualitative or quantitative research. You may be able to reframe existing internal information to develop patient journey maps. Keep in mind that if the research wasn’t framed to capture patient journeys, you may find it difficult to build a complete map this way. </li><li>In-depth interviews. Speaking one-on-one with patients and caregivers provides immense depth to maps and allows you to ask clarifying questions. Keeping your discussion open to new information will make in-depth interviews especially rewarding. However, this methodology relies on participant recollection and may not allow you to reliably build maps of detailed and complex processes (e.g., specific treatments and procedures). </li><li>Diary studies. Diary studies can help you understand a patient’s life over a few days. As they can take place over the course of a week or so, you can better capture the ups and downs patients experience day to day. Due to the need for participants to engage in the diary study daily, this methodology may not be a good match for participants undergoing intense symptoms or treatment regimens. </li><li>Contextual inquiry. Observing processes in person can yield rich insights and uncover unspoken pains and gains. Being able to view patients going through portions of their journey can help you obtain details you may otherwise miss. However, contextual inquiry can be difficult to rely on as your only data source as you have little room to ask questions about what you’re observing. This methodology can be enhanced by follow-up interviews. </li><li>Quantitative surveys. If you wish to validate current journey steps, pains, and gains, a quantitative survey is an excellent option. Having additional backing for map hypotheses can be especially powerful. However, if you don’t have robust hypotheses, data received from surveys may not provide you with the depth needed to create a full map.</li></ul>
Tip for success: Consider including multiple stakeholders (caregivers, physicians, healthcare staff) in your data collection to help create a well-rounded view of the patient journey. Sometimes you may not be able to reach patients and will need to rely on others to piece together key information. Keep in mind that, even if you interview others, the patient perspective is key. 
No matter which research method you choose, certain steps will follow. 
<ul><li>Develop a mapping hypothesis as a foundation for your project. To give structure to your data collection tools, first create a basic, high-level journey map. Try to identify a few key steps in the journey that you believe all patients must take. Feel free to engage other team members in this exercise to develop a robust hypothesis.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Build tools that focus on the participant’s experience. Build your data collection tools around the process you are mapping. This tip is especially important when you are speaking directly to patients. Rather than letting the discussion float from topic to topic during interviews, you’ll need to help participants mentally walk through their journey. For instance, if you are mapping a doctor’s visit, questions will focus on what patients are doing and thinking before, during, and after the appointment in that order.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Formulate questions that get patients talking about pain points and gains. To better understand what patients value, be sure to ask not only about pain points but <a href="https://www.delve.com/insights/no-pain-no-gain" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">also the gains</a> they experience. Be aware that people may not always be able to fully recognize and express the highs and lows they experience. You will need to use your skills as a researcher to uncover additional pains and gains during analysis.</li></ul>

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<ul><li>Consider collecting additional interactions and touchpoints. To add more depth and context to your journey map you can also gather the following information: <ul><li>Interpersonal interactions (who do patients interact with?)</li><li>Physical and digital interactions (what do patients interact with?)</li><li>Environments (where does the process take place?)</li><li>Emotional impact (how do patients emotions change during their journey?)</li><li>Time taken (how long do steps/phases take?)</li><li>Decision points and exits (when do patients make decisions? When do they leave a journey?</li></ul></li></ul>

Download: Co-Creation Template for Patient Journey

Tip for success: During research, you can gain rich insights by working together with patients to co-create a map of their personal experience. Encouraging participants to illustrate their own journey helps them better articulate their experiences and easily add information such as emotions, time, and decision-making.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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<h3 id="Step3">Step 3: Organize collected data to identify a clear patient narrative.</h3>
It’s time to get messy! Diving into your data is often the most chaotic part of the process. While you can approach data analysis in many ways, some basic steps include the following. 
<ul><li>Revise your high-level map based on new learnings. Look at the high-level map you previously developed and make edits based on any new information you uncovered during your interviews. Did you find a step or process you initially didn’t know about? Add it in! </li><li>Pull your data into a digital or physical collaborative space. Print off all your notes, bring them into a workspace, and place them on a table or hang them on a whiteboard. Make sure you have plenty of space! Alternatively, you can copy your notes into a digital whiteboard app for remote collaboration.</li><li>Organize your data from the start of the journey to the end. Now that you have all your data in one place, begin sorting it into groups under the steps in the high-level map. As you sort, be open to creating new or splitting existing steps based on the data you have. </li><li>Summarize and name journey steps. Using digital or physical post-its, summarize steps using two to three words. Try to maintain a consistent naming pattern to make the steps easier to follow (e.g., Enter the office, locate the front desk, check in). Naming steps takes time, so don’t worry about it being perfect now. Names can be finalized during map refinement. </li><li>Link specific pains and gains to journey steps. Review the information under each step and specifically look for comments on negative and positive experiences. Pull common experiences together to form pains and gains. Mapping pains and gains against map steps helps you understand where the most friction or delight exists and points to areas ripe for innovation. </li><li>Note other touchpoints to be incorporated. Look at the data within each step and write down lists of tools, environments, emotions experienced, and other relevant information mentioned. You can reference these lists when you are adding map details later in the process.</li></ul>


Tip for success: As you review data, you’ll often find inconsistencies in patients’ journeys. Don’t fret – this is very common and a part of gathering information from multiple perspectives. Lean into the storytelling aspects of journey map design and determine which pathway tells the clearest patient narrative while also being true to what you learned. In your final map, you have the option of noting where steps may diverge from what is shown. 
<h3 id="Step4">Step 4: Structure your map to ensure consistency in step detail.</h3>
Now that you have the basic information for your patient journey map, it’s time to refine the content and make sure the information sits at the same level of detail to ensure the map’s narrative is clear and easy to understand. 
<ul><li>Digitize your map for easier editing. If you haven’t already, begin to bring your map into the digital space. Miro, Excel, or other tools where you can easily edit content and collaborate with others is perfect to use at this stage.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Ensure consistent step detail across the map. Once you have the map framework together, see where there is too little or too much detail. Steps should feel consistent and not overly detailed. You want to provide map readers with a summary, not a dissertation! If you need to include more information, consider incorporating tasks under map steps.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Create phases to aid in map wayfinding. Sets of similar steps can be placed under larger phases. To determine where phases start and end, consider when a patient reaches certain goals. For instance, if a patient is going to the doctor, phases could include “scheduling appointment” and “arriving at appointment” with specific steps included underneath.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Develop the emotional journey. Using your notes and information from co-creation exercises, you can begin to develop the patient’s emotional journey. Look for commonalities across patients where they feel negative and positive emotions and create the basic emotional trajectory from those shared feelings. Often you will see a range of emotions at each step and that range can be visually represented on the final map.</li></ul>
Tip for success: If you find that there are many steps in one phase and only a few in another, consider whether a new phase needs to be formed or whether steps should be distributed differently. By evening out phases, you will make the map easier to navigate and ensure you aren’t oversimplifying the process.

2023 06 05 Patient Journey Mapping INLINE6 journey map example

<h3>Step 5: Incorporate details into your map to add depth and context.</h3>
Now it’s time to pull in the pains, gains, and other pieces of information you want to include and prepare the final version of your map.
Once you have all your information together, you can develop the map hierarchy and design. Our patient journey map shows you one way you can organize your information.

Tip for success: To add another layer of validation, put your map in front of some of the patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals with whom you initially spoke. These groups can give excellent feedback and ensure you get the details right. 
<h3 id="Step6">Step 6: Add visual interest to your map to create an immersive, engaging experience.</h3>
Now that your map’s content and organization are confirmed, it’s time to think about other visuals. Color application, icons, and images are all ways to add interest to your map and help immerse readers into the content. Be careful to use visuals that will enhance your information, not distract from it. Simpler is better. 
Maps can live in a digital space, designed for printing, and/or be split apart for presentations. Consider how you want people to engage with the patient journey map to understand what format works best for you. 
Tip for success: Keep your map current. As you validate findings and implement change during future efforts, be sure the new information gets added to the map. Creating a map version that you can update over time can help ensure it is always up to date and showcase how much you have achieved.

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<h2 id="HowToUse">How to Use Your Patient Journey Map</h2>
Your completed patient journey map is an excellent reference tool for engaging internal teams and uncovering areas for product and service development. Health organization stakeholders can use it in different ways including the following.
<ul><li>Highlight areas of opportunity. Viewing an end-to-end patient journey can highlight areas of high pain and high importance. Targeting steps of the map where pain points seem to cluster can help your teams identify where to prioritize new initiatives.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Share internal knowledge. As new stakeholders onboard to your organization, patient journey maps are a quick way to bring them up to speed. The visual and immersive nature of journey maps makes it easy to learn new information.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Develop team empathy. Since patient journey maps are developed from the patient’s viewpoint, it is an excellent tool to help create empathy. Understanding what patients undergo can be eye-opening and helps develop a user-centric approach to providing care.</li></ul>
By providing a comprehensive and detailed visualization of each step of the patient experience, a patient journey map makes this complex and often emotionally charged experience easier to understand, analyze, and improve. Use your map not just to design solutions that better meet the needs of patients, but also to reinforce a patient-centric approach to delivering healthcare throughout your organization.

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