Website: https://www.jeffdavishospital.org/
Introduction
The Healthcare Group is testing and re-designing the Jeff Davis Hospital (JDH) website, shown in Figure 1, JDH is a hospital system located in Hazlehurst, GA that serves patients and families affected by cardiovascular accidents such as strokes. Our interest is to observe and accommodate users who leverage technology to find more information and actions about their personal or family’s healthcare needs. Within healthcare alone technology can be frustrating but especially trying to navigate care for a loved one affected by a stroke which delays elderly care. This will be further exasperated when the demand for care exceeds provider capacity. However, digital strategies will promote efficiency and better outcomes (Haddad et al., 2022). Contrasting widely known healthcare systems like Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic, Jeff Davis Hospital services a smaller population regionally and accentuates most heuristics issues previously violated around consistency, standards, error prevention, efficiency, and minimalist design (Nielsen, 2020).
In reviewing previous heuristics evaluations, the JDH site mainly displays inconsistency and rigidity by using uncommon semantics and disjointed site navigation. Notably, as shown in Figure 2, numerous medical knowledge articles directing users to learn about symptoms or conditions link externally to its antiquated Fast Health site with no backward navigation. Likewise, observing SEO results, many remnants of the old site designs remain in the top 10 results. This disjointed navigation will be reflected in our representative tasks while observing usability flaws identified by our target user group.
User Persona and Scenario
Jennifer is a 53-year-old resident of St. Augustine, FL, and is the adult-child of an 82-year-old father that has recently suffered a stroke. Jennifer’s father lives outside of a rural, small town in Georgia called Hazelhurst, however, he was transferred from his local hospital, Jeff Davis Hospital, to a larger hospital for emergency surgery in Jacksonville, FL.
Jennifer’s father has completed his surgery and is recovering well; he has requested to be transferred back to his local hospital to complete recovery and rehabilitation so that he can be closer to his elderly wife and home.
Jennifer is using the Jeff Davis Hospital website for the first time to see if she can have her father transferred back to recover, learn more about stroke, and see what elderly-specific outpatient care coordination is available after being discharged.
Representative Tasks
1. Finding Information About Strokes on the Site
Our target user group is most interested in retrieving health-related information from Jeff Davis’s Fast Health interface. Namely, researching elderly strokes considering the high likelihood of such an event (Brain basics: Preventing stroke, n.d.). Our target users will review this information to make better decisions for the welfare of those impacted by such health issues.
This representative task of our target user group seeks to establish Fast Health’s trustworthiness and usability for its target audience. Namely, we are interested in testing how well Fast Health can satisfy the target user’s needs based on our given scenario for reviewing health information related to strokes. Additionally, we seek to document usability discrepancies identified while conducting Nielsen’s (2020) heuristics evaluations.
2. Find Patient Transfer Services for the Hospital
Patient transfer services are often needed for the elderly for several reasons. Namely, when the patient is transitioning from post-surgery to physical rehabilitation. Such services are imperative to the safety and well-being of the patient, which aids in their recovery. Our target user group will seek information related to this task through Jeff Davis’s website.
We are most interested in testing the website’s usability in carrying out this task. Specifically, matching real-world vocabulary to the system. That is, considering if the website has strong information scent for locating such services based on the user’s understanding.
3. Find Information About Elderly Care Coordination
Outpatient services provided to the elderly serve as a strong pillar for any medical facility. Our target user group will search for such services on the Jeff Davis website to help the elderly in their care. This task addresses similar usability issues identified in locating patient transfer services. Additionally, we are interested in testing usability flaws regarding the context and content provided by this section of the website. Namely, we are testing website consistency and standards regarding its naming conventions and brevity.
Conclusion
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that within the United States (U.S) every forty seconds someone has a stroke while more than 795,000 people (about half the population of Idaho) in the U.S experience a stroke annually (CDC, 2022). With the high probability of stroke that affects people in the U.S every year, having a plan of action and care plan for loved ones affected by stroke is imperative thus why effective navigation and usability of hospital sites like the JDH website is needed. In our presented usability analysis scenario is an 82-year-old stroke victim who received care in Jacksonville. Jennifer is attempting to access information on transferring her father from Jacksonville, FL to Hazelhurst, GA where JDH is located so that he may be closer to his elderly wife and home. The representative tasks include three steps which are as follows; Find information about strokes on the JDH website, Find Patient Transfer Services for the Hospital, and Find Information About Elderly Care Coordination. With these representative tasks, Jennifer could use the information found to make informed decisions to successfully transfer her father from Jacksonville, FL to Jeff Davis Hospital.
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References
Brain basics: Preventing stroke. (n.d.). National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/public-education/brain-basics/brain-basics-preventing-stroke
Haddad, L.M., Annamaraju, P., & Toney-Butler, T.J. (2022). Nursing Shortage. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/
Jeff davis hospital. (2022). Jeff Davis Hospital. https://www.jeffdavishospital.org/
Jeff Davis Hospital/fasthealth corporation (Hazlehurst, Georgia – jeff davis county). (2022). Jeff Davis Hospital/FastHealth Corporation. http://www.jeffdavisfasthealth.com/
Nielsen, J. (2020, November 15). 10 usability heuristics for user interface design. Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
Stroke facts. (2022, April 5). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts.htm