How Experimentation in Digital Playgrounds Drives Human Performance

In Dublin, Ireland, one of the country’s leading private hospitals was facing a crisis: Amid growing patient demand, increasingly complex clinical issues, aging infrastructure, and space constraints, patient care was starting to suffer. Wait times were too long. Delays and interruptions in care were negatively impacting the patient experience.
 
To address these challenges, the hospital began by launching an experiment with a single department—radiology—creating a digital twin of the department. In this virtual 3D environment, teams were able to explore different physical layouts and test new operational scenarios, workshopping them with staff and stakeholders.
 
In short order, the department reduced patient waiting times by up to 25 minutes and turnaround times (the time between a patient’s arrival and departure) by 28 minutes or more. They were able to improve physical accessibility, make better use of equipment, and reduce staffing costs. And all of these improvements—which would normally have taken months, and even years, of trial and error to achieve—were realized in just a matter of weeks.
 
This is just one example of how organizations are using a rapidly advancing suite of digital tools and applications to achieve transformational business and customer-facing results. But there’s something important missing in this equation: workforce impact. In their rush to improve the end-customer experience and organizational bottom line, organizations may be overlooking the potential benefits that use of these technologies can bring to the human beings doing the work, and thus missing a critical opportunity to expand their impact.


​Source: Deloitte