Service Design applied to a Health Record System. A prototype for a refugee field hospital in Iraq

Camacho, Lea Pinto Ribeiro

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/7983

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Authors

Camacho, Lea Pinto Ribeiro

Advisor(s)

Santiago, Eliana Isabel Saraiva Pereira dos Penedos

Santos, Estêvão Soares dos

Abstract(s)

The recent humanitarian crisis has led millions to flee their homes and find refuge in other areas. Health non-governmental organizations (NGO), such as Adventist Help (AH), arose from the need to provide aid and lessen human suffering. However, working in this context over the past 5 years, I witnessed a compromised quality of care, due to uncertain and limited health record (HR) system. Quality in healthcare has been associated with a functional HR system for its management, delivery, and safety. Therefore, the identification and implementation of such a system is imperative. Systematic collection of patients’ health features and continuity of care to a database is crucial to ensure high standards of care, particularly in contexts where health systems are destroyed or disrupted, leaving the population without proper care. Using a mix methods approach with a service design methodology, this dissertation aims to develop an HR system's service blueprint within an emergency field hospital inside a refugee camp in Iraq, to avert a scenario of a meager patient care. A Service Safari, with informal ethnographic interviews, was conducted initially to understand the current situation for the development of a prototype. A Speed Consulting workshop followed, with national and international health professionals working at AH’s field hospital, to explore opportunities for improvement of the system. Finally, a User Experience Flowchart was created, outlining the flow of the HR system when used by healthcare professionals. An open-source EHR system was identified, which can be used in contexts such as the present, as well as the main problems regarding its customization. This system, when adequately customized to the clinical context, has the potential to be distributed free of charge to all health stakeholders, who lack a simple and effective clinical registration tool.