Services

• Design strategy

• Content analysis and instructional design

• Information architecture

• Content development, writing, and editing

• User and stakeholder research

• Brand audit and consulting

• Visual design and production

Outcomes

• Translated years of work and experience into a practical system of content that facilities anywhere can use

• Established a process model that can help guide other programs and quality improvement efforts

Situation

In 2010, Ariadne Labs — a Joint Center of Innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Pubic Health — launched SafeSurgery 2015, a program dedicated to bring the World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist into use in every hospital in the United States. 

The team began in South Carolina, working closely with the South Carolina Hospital Association and hospitals around the state to implement the checklist. Good training materials had been developed, but much of the advice was only available in videos of webinars and was often specific to South Carolina cohorts. Meanwhile, the team was beginning to expand the program to other states and large systems and recognized the need for change in order to support a broader national reach.

How we helped

We were initially asked to explore the idea of an automated system for checklist modification, but analysis and user research revealed that it would be more helpful to give facilities better tools for understanding and executing the implementation process.

So we pivoted. After auditing existing content and conducting additional user/stakeholder research, we helped the team create a new conceptual framework to describe the quality improvement process and to explain and present best practices for checklist implementation.

We then used that framework to validate existing content, identify and address gaps, develop new content and tools, and organize the material into a comprehensive system. Although the budget did not enable us to build the website originally envisioned as ideal for users, we wrote and structured the materials with future web deployment in mind, delivering content that is concise, practical, and easy to navigate.