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DTU · Innovation in Organizations / Collaborative university project

Improving Patient
Preparation.

Making patient preparation easier to understand.

Healthcare Research & Information Redesign

A team project with the Endoscopy Department at Nordsjællands Hospital, investigating patient preparation and developing revised preparation documents.

Exterior detail of Nordsjællands Hospital, showing its name above the entrance
Hospital exterior detail / supplied project presentation
Period
DTU university project
My role
Collaborative field research
& patient-information redesign
Tools & methods
Fieldwork · Qualitative interviews
Organizational analysis · Redesign
Context
Nordsjællands Hospital, Hillerød · Endoscopy Department
Innovation in Organizations (IOK) · DTU

01 / The context

Preparation begins
before arrival.

Clear preparation information connects the patient’s experience at home with the practical work of the department.

Our university team collaborated with the Endoscopy Department at Nordsjællands Hospital in Hillerød to understand challenges experienced by patients and healthcare staff.

We investigated daily operations, patient preparation and the organizational setting. The eventual design focus was the information patients received before endoscopic examinations.

02 / Field research

Five days.
Many perspectives.

We combined department observations with conversations and interviews across the hospital setting.

The group divided research activities between team members. We gathered perspectives from patients, nurses, doctors, coordinators, secretaries and support staff, and reviewed written patient feedback.

Our analysis also considered organizational roles, routines and constraints. Qualitative coding helped organize recurring themes in the material.

  1. Day 01

    Get oriented

    Introduction to the fieldwork, expectations and the hospital setting.

  2. Day 02

    Meet the department

    Department observations and parallel conversations with staff and a patient.

  3. Day 03

    Follow the workflow

    Early-morning observations, a briefing and an informal conversation with a doctor.

  4. Day 04

    Hear the feedback

    Coordinator and patient interviews, administrative perspectives and written patient feedback.

  5. Day 05

    Deepen the inquiry

    Support-staff perspectives and a patient interview about preparation and document clarity.

The timeline summarizes the group’s fieldwork record. It does not imply that every team member conducted every activity.

03 / Identifying the problem

Three pressures.
A focused response.

Research brought three connected problem areas into view: insufficient patient preparation, time pressure and limited physical space.

Patient preparation documents became an important design focus because they connected access to information, understanding and the practical requirements patients needed to follow.

  1. 01 / Patient preparation

    Unprepared
    patients

    Staff described patients arriving without having understood or completed preparation requirements.

  2. 02 / Workflow

    Time
    pressure

    Scheduling and resource constraints shaped daily work and the support staff could provide.

  3. 03 / Physical setting

    Space
    constraints

    Field observations documented limited space for storage and movement within the department.

04 / User insights

Find it.
Understand it.
Follow it.

Accessing the instructions was part of the preparation problem.

The evidence labels below distinguish staff reports, field observations and an early working hypothesis. The preliminary poster identified areas to investigate further.

Staff-reported barrier

Finding e-Boks attachments

Staff described patients missing preparation attachments or having difficulty locating them in e-Boks.

Staff-reported support need

Interpreting the requirements

Staff spent time answering questions and helping patients understand preparation requirements. This support was an existing departmental practice.

Early hypothesis

Length and navigation

The team’s early notes proposed that lengthy instructions could make important information difficult to find. This was a working hypothesis, not a verified causal finding.

Field observations

Information within a workflow

Observations of a busy department and constrained physical space helped us understand the context in which patient information and staff support had to work.

05 / Document redesign

From listening
to revised materials.

Together, we developed revised patient preparation documents.

The work was informed by feedback from patients who had already experienced the examination process, as well as nurses and doctors from the department.

Our aim was to make the preparation information easier to access, understand and follow.

  1. 01

    Observations

    Understand the everyday context.

  2. 02

    User feedback

    Hear patient and staff perspectives.

  3. 03

    Insights

    Identify barriers and a design focus.

  4. 04

    Document redesign

    Develop revised preparation information.

  5. 05

    Revised materials

    Bring the work into updated documents.

The case describes the redesign at project level. Specific layout changes and document comparisons are not shown without the genuine materials and publication approval.

07 / Outcome & learning

Research with people.
Design for clarity.

The design output was revised patient preparation material, developed through collaboration and feedback.

For me, the project strengthened the connection between field research, stakeholder engagement, organizational understanding and information design.

Working within a healthcare setting gave me experience with listening across professional roles and developing a user-centered response to a practical communication problem.

  • User-centered design
  • Field research
  • Qualitative interviews
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Healthcare communication
  • Organizational analysis
  • Information design
  • Iterative development

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