CHAG facilities coordinate through a structured network for consistent, high-quality healthcare. Elephant's initiative aims to help these organizations manage operations across all their sites using near real-time data gathered by Elephant OS. A secondary goal is to market Elephant OS by demonstrating its ability to dissect and present actionable data for informing policy decisions
TOOLS
Google Data Studio, Figma
ROLE
Design Lead
The Methodist Health Directorate faces major operational problems. Like others in CHAG, these issues pose a challenge to healthcare delivery. Key problems included:
Budget restraints made it difficult to determine the optimal amount to spend on medical supplies.
Supply chain issues leading to stockouts of essential supplies due to poor demand forecasting.
A lack of preparedness for public health emergencies that require facilities to adapt quickly while still meeting daily health needs.
Effective planning for policy, evaluation, and resource management would help solve these problems. However, this planning is blocked by a lack of actionable data on key operations.
Engagement with the Directorate
We held a series of Q&A sessions with representatives of the Methodist Health Directorate to better understand their needs and expectations regarding managing their facilities in the Greater Accra, Central, and Ashanti regions. Our engagement also focused on defining specific indicators to inform their decisions.
Our solution required providing actionable insights to help the directorate:
Identify key cost-saving opportunities.
Respond to disease outbreaks in near-realtime.
Effectively allocate resources where they are needed the most.
Generate printable reports that are in line with the Health Ministry's standards.
Effective planning for policy, evaluation, and resource management would help solve these problems. However, this planning is blocked by a lack of actionable data on key operations.
Data Acquisition and Analysis
Elephant OS was our only data source because it connected all the facilities managed by the directorate. Our data scientist and analyst did the heavy lifting by cleaning and processing the raw data from Elephant OS. They then organized it using key indicators ready for display on our dashboard.
Clarity
Making the information easy to understand so users aren’t confused.
Relevant
Ensuring the content or features meet the user’s actual needs and goals
Interactivity
Allowing users to engage with the system to explore different options.
Low Density
Ensuring everyone can use the system without difficulty.
Putting it all together
We created a single, easy-to-read dashboard for each facility. This gave the Methodist Health Directorate a quick, complete view of that facility's operations.
We conducted a week-long pilot at the directorate to stress-test our solution in a real-world setting. Feedback on the dashboard's user experience was largely positive, requiring only minor fixes. However, we encountered latency issues. This was especially true at remote facilities where slow internet and power outages were common.
The bad news first
The Methodist Data Room never launched. Slow decision-making by the directorate's leadership stalled the project. A few major hurdles dragged the launch out for months until it was abandoned entirely.
Some good news
Our "mission control" dashboard was ready for deployment. We were able to offer this solution to other health organizations and territories. For example, a dashboard is already active in a Pakistan District Health Office. Decision-makers there use it to track immunizations, illness, and prescriptions by facility.
