Project Overview
The Problem
Nurse Practitioners (NPs) at DaVita previously relied on a mix of spreadsheets and disparate tools to manage their daily tasks and prepare for patient appointments. This fragmented approach created significant inefficiencies, as NPs had to navigate multiple systems. Moreover, their Excel-based trackers often failed to comply with DaVita’s strict data protection policies, as they stored Private Personal Information (PPI) without oversight from the legal team, putting compliance at risk.This highlighted the need for a more unified solution: a patient roster dashboard integrated directly into DaVita’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, Cerner. The vision for the NP Dashboard was to consolidate various trackers into a single, streamlined interface that would simplify NPs' workflows. By centralizing patient information and activities in one place, the dashboard would enhance both the efficiency and accuracy of patient care, while ensuring full compliance with privacy and security regulations.
My Approach
In designing the NP Dashboard for DaVita, I focused on creating an intuitive, user-centered solution that streamlined workflows, improved efficiency, and ensured compliance. My approach began with understanding Nurse Practitioners' needs through user research, leading to a clean, easy-to-navigate interface that consolidated patient data into a single platform. The dashboard was seamlessly integrated into DaVita’s Cerner EHR system for a smooth user experience, while also adhering to strict compliance and security standards. Iterative feedback and testing ensured continuous improvement, and the design was built to scale, allowing for future updates. Overall, the goal was to enhance NPs' workflows, simplify their tasks, and ensure compliance, all within a user-friendly, efficient tool.
Key Objectives
Enhance Workflow Efficiency: Streamline daily tasks by consolidating multiple tools into a single, intuitive dashboard, reducing time spent navigating systems and boosting productivity.
Simplify Task Management: Organize patient-related activities and appointments in one place, enabling NPs to quickly prioritize and manage their daily responsibilities with ease.
Optimize User Experience: Design a clean, intuitive interface that minimizes complexity, reduces cognitive load, and allows NPs to access information easily.
Support Cross-Collaboration: Enable Nurse Practitioners to easily view and access the dashboards of their colleagues to foster better collaboration and ensure continuity of patient care.
Facilitate Scalability: Design for future growth, allowing for easy updates and new features to adapt to evolving needs without disrupting the user experience.
Research & Discovery
Understanding the User
My approach to understanding NPs who would be using the Dashboard was grounded in thorough research, which played a critical role in shaping the final design. I started by shadowing NPs in their work environments to gain a first-hand understanding of their challenges, needs, and daily workflows. This research helped me identify key pain points, such as inefficiencies from using multiple tools, difficulty accessing key patient demographic data and associated tasks quickly. By mapping out NPs' workflows and observing how they interacted with existing systems, I gained valuable insights into the specific tasks and actions they prioritized throughout their day.
Getting Into the Field
To better understand DaVita’s NPs in a real-world setting, I conducted immersive research at dialysis clinics to better grasp the challenges Nurse Practitioners faced with their current tools and spreadsheets. By shadowing NPs, I observed how they navigated fragmented patient data, leading to inefficiencies and frustration. I also worked with the UX Research team to conduct interviews with NPs and clinic staff to gather insights on their specific pain points, such as time constraints and the need for more streamlined access to key patient information when preparing for their annual patient checkups.
Leveraging the UX Research Team
Collaboration with the UX Research team was a key part of my process in designing the NP Dashboard. The first step in our collaboration was defining clear research objectives. We outlined specific questions we wanted to answer, including: What challenges do NPs face when managing a patient list? How do they currently navigate multiple tools, and where do they experience friction? This approach ensured that the research focused on the most relevant areas for the dashboard design. The UX Research team then led in-depth interviews and shadowing sessions with NPs which I often participated in to directly observe the challenges they faced in their work environments. The research team’s expertise in interview techniques helped us gather rich, qualitative insights that would have been difficult to uncover through design alone.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Aligning with Product
Once we had a clear understanding of the user needs, gathered through UX research, I worked closely with the product team to translate these insights into tangible features for the dashboard. We discussed key business goals, such as improving workflow efficiency, ensuring data compliance, and supporting NPs in providing better patient care. This helped us align on the strategic direction for the product and ensured that the dashboard would address both user needs and organizational priorities. We also clarified technical constraints, timelines, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success, which guided our design decisions throughout the project.
Working with Legal and Compliance
Given the sensitive nature of patient data and the strict regulatory requirements in healthcare, it was essential to ensure that the dashboard met all legal, privacy, and compliance standards. From the outset, I engaged with the Legal and Compliance team to gain a clear understanding of DaVita’s data protection policies, privacy laws (such as HIPAA), and security requirements. As the dashboard evolved, I held regular meetings with them and the Product team to review design progress and ensure ongoing compliance. We conducted joint reviews of wireframes, prototypes, and functionality to assess any potential risks or gaps.
User Testing & Design Iterations
Putting Designs in Front of Nurse Practitioners
I used feedback from Nurse Practitioner panels and the Product team to refine the design of the NP Dashboard's most critical component: the patient card. The original patient card (pictured below) allocated half of the horizontal space to patient information, such as insurance, assigned dialysis center, and outreach status. This left limited room for the patient activities listed to the right, like CHE and PHQ-9 evaluations. Given that additional activities were planned for future updates, this design posed scalability challenges.
Feedback from NPs made it clear that while patient details were important, the ability to quickly scan and prioritize associated activities was far more critical for their workflow. In response, I redesigned the patient card to consolidate key patient details, freeing up more space for activities. I also moved the patient's last CHE (annual appointment) to a hover state next to their CHE priority, optimizing space and grouping related information more efficiently.
The design of the activities themselves was overhauled as well. In the initial version, activities were hard to distinguish from the rest of the patient details, making it difficult for NPs to quickly assess their significance. I reworked the activities into distinct cards to provide better contrast and make them stand out visually. NPs also emphasized the need to quickly identify the urgency of each activity to prioritize their workflow. To address this, I introduced color coding and icons: overdue activities were highlighted in dark pink with an exclamation icon, while upcoming activities (due tomorrow) were marked in soft yellow with a timer icon. These visual cues allowed NPs to instantly identify the most pressing tasks.
With these updates, Version 2 of the patient card offered a more streamlined, scannable design, making it easier for NPs to manage their patient lists - especially when viewing dozens of patients at a time.
Version 1
Version 2
Handing Off to Dev and QA
Collaboration and Continuous Involvement
Handing off the final design of the NP Dashboard was a collaborative and iterative process. By providing clear design assets, documentation, and interactive prototypes, I ensured that the Development and QA teams had the resources they needed to successfully implement the design. My ongoing involvement throughout the development and testing phases helped ensure a smooth transition, resolve issues quickly, and ultimately deliver a polished, functional product that met the needs of Nurse Practitioners and complied with all technical and regulatory standards. The success of this handoff was driven by strong communication, transparency, and a shared commitment to creating an excellent user experience.
Ensuring the Final Product Aligns with the Design
I collaborated with the Development team to implement a design system that governed how UI elements should be styled and structured. This system included guidelines on spacing, grid layouts, and font sizes, as well as more specific elements like icons and activity cards. I also reviewed functionality, checked for visual accuracy, and tested how well the dashboard handled edge cases, such as how it performed with different data sets or when accessed on various desktop devices. I also reviewed bug reports with the QA team and prioritized fixes based on their impact on the user experience. I also made sure the colors and icons used to denote activity urgency were accurate and aligned with the design specifications.
Launching the NP Dashboard
Cross-Team Collaboration from Planning to Execution
From the outset, I worked with the Product team to define clear launch goals and timelines, ensuring everyone was aligned on objectives. I then collaborated closely with the development team to ensure the dashboard was built according to design specifications, conducting thorough testing and user acceptance sessions to validate functionality and user experience.I also worked with the Product and Training teams to create educational materials and provide training for Nurse Practitioners, ensuring a smooth adoption process. As we neared the launch, we conducted final reviews and preparations, ensuring all features were integrated and compliance standards met. Post-launch, I worked with both teams to monitor the dashboard’s performance, gather feedback, and address any issues quickly.
Future Enhancements
Priority Locations View
A planned enhancement for the NP Dashboard is the ability to group patients by dialysis location or nephrology practice, prioritized by the number of appointments required. This feature will include a toggle button that takes users to a secondary view with expandable accordions, each displaying a counter showing the number of priority appointments at that location. This update will significantly boost Nurse Practitioners' efficiency by enabling them to complete a larger number of visits in a single location. By reducing the need for travel, NPs will have more time to focus on high-priority patients, ensuring they receive the care they need in a more streamlined and effective manner.
Appointments by Week Modal
The next planned enhancement introduces a popup modal that provides a comprehensive weekly summary of the user’s CHE appointments, presenting all the essential information a Nurse Practitioner needs to effectively plan their week. This includes the total number of appointments, patient names and details, appointment dates and times, as well as locations and current appointment statuses. Additionally, patients' names are clickable, allowing NPs to easily navigate to the associated Patient Care Summary for a deeper dive into each patient's history and care plan. This feature will greatly streamline the planning and scheduling process, enabling NPs to manage their week more efficiently and stay on top of patient needs.
Awards & Recognition
A Testament to Collaboration and Impact
For my work on the NP Dashboard, I was honored to receive the MVP Award from DaVita, recognizing my outstanding contribution to the success of the project. This award was a testament to the dedication and collaboration I brought to every phase of the design process, from initial research to the final product launch. Being awarded the MVP Award was not just a personal achievement, but a reflection of the collaborative effort that went into making the NP Dashboard a success. It was an affirmation of the importance of strong teamwork and a shared vision in delivering a product that truly made a difference in the healthcare space. This recognition motivated me to continue striving for excellence in every project and reinforced my commitment to creating thoughtful, user-centered designs that solve real-world problems.
Conclusion
Designing the NP Dashboard: Streamlining Workflows and Enhancing Patient Care for Nurse Practitioners
Designing the NP Dashboard has been an incredibly rewarding and impactful project. From understanding the unique needs of Nurse Practitioners through extensive user research, to collaborating closely with cross-functional teams, every step of the process was focused on improving workflow efficiency and enhancing the overall user experience. By consolidating multiple tools into one intuitive platform, I was able to create a solution that streamlined daily tasks, improved patient care coordination, and ensured compliance with critical regulations.
Through thoughtful design iterations and continuous feedback from NPs, the dashboard evolved into a user-centered tool that helps NPs manage patient appointments, track activities, and prioritize workflows with greater ease. The work didn’t stop at launch - ongoing collaboration with the development, product, and QA teams ensured that the dashboard was not only launched successfully but also continues to evolve based on real user needs.
In the end, the NP Dashboard has empowered Nurse Practitioners to deliver more efficient, effective care to their patients, while also reducing administrative burdens. The project has not only met its objectives but has set the stage for future enhancements that will continue to improve NPs' daily workflows, ultimately contributing to better patient outcomes and a more streamlined healthcare experience.
