Public services

Working with innovation in an organisation such as a hospital, where people constantly deal with emergencies and limited time resources, is challenging. Despite this, Blakstad Hospital, part of 

(Hospital Trust), was determined to find new ways of working to improve the patient pathway. They had identified numerous issues on different levels that made smooth and safe transitions of the patient challenging. Our aim was to find a way of going from insights to creating concrete tools for action.

Making patient transitions safer

We worked with three parallel experiments: 1) Increasing involvement of the patient and relatives for a more holistic treatment. 2) Increasing trust within and between teams. 3) Continuous innovation and development of smaller but essential challenges that Blakstad Hospital had identified themselves.

Based on the existing insight and results from additional insight work and 

with hospital staff and patients, we could see that the most crucial goals should aim to increase trust on different levels. Lack of trust, both between teams and institutions, caused problems such as duplicated journals and other types of extra work. 

Experimentation

Moreover, we saw that a series of touchpoints and routines urged for improved processes. For example, one of the most critical steps for the patient was the experience of being admitted to the hospital. Understanding the patient and their needs during the first 24 hours is essential to how they experience the rest of their stay and the treatment in the hospital.

We developed a series of experiments, tools, and methods that the staff could use to improve team trust and to make processes smoother. These tools were designed to increase the involvement of the patient and relatives and to make it viable to work with continuous development in daily operations.

A toolbox of concrete tools, methods, and learnings

Among the tools were a printed mapping tool to map the incoming patient's needs, a sprint handbook (how to conduct sprints), suggestions for meetings and meeting points for information transfer, and an information folder.

Through the experiments, workshops, and an extensive toolbox, Blakstad Hospital has gained know-how of new methods to help them work continuously with innovation. The concrete tools, such as the mapping tool to provide an overview and gather information about the patient's condition and needs, and the information folder, are valuable in themselves. However, learning ways of working to innovate on their own through our 

, is of even greater value. It allows them to extend and expand the delivered value beyond the finished project and EGGS' contribution.

Innovation Mentoring

Continuous innovation

Experiments are different from testing a pilot. Experiments are used to learn more about a situation and a challenge and are a valuable way of understanding and exploring complex challenges safely. It’s a good way of approaching learning and innovation in the healthcare and welfare sector, where regulations are essential to consider and where resources and time are scarce.

Safer patient pathways through improved transitions