Phase II: Active Experimentation
BIF set out in April 2008 to build a neutral platform for experimentation where partners can test new ideas in a working elder care facility with guidance from a laboratory team of designers, clinicians and elder care experts.
Working with Tockwotton Home, a 30-bed assisted living center and 42-bed skilled nursing facility located in Providence, Rhode Island and Quality Partners of Rhode Island, the team used an observational design approach to create a detailed description of the current experience of nursing home and assisted-living residents that illuminates the day-to-day dynamics of elder life that also reveals areas of the experience most in need of redesign.
After hundreds of hours at Tockwotton Home participating in social events, meeting with residents, talking with families and staff, interviewing experts and documenting daily experiences with audio, video and still photography, the team synthesized their observations into a series of maps, vignettes and photographic displays that make it easier for non-experts and experts alike to understand the current experience and preview a set of opportunities for improving it.
From this work, the NHoF team and its advisors narrowed the field down to 13 areas of the elder care experience that can be improved through redesign and active experimentation in phase II of the NHoF lab activity, which will begin in January 2009.
In Phase II, the team will leverage the relationships BIF has created with Tockwotton Home, NHoF project advisors, BIF partners from the private sector, and elder care experts from across the country to begin active experimentation with new products, services and systems for improving the elder experience.
The major emphasis in phase II will be focus on the launch of an actionable test environment where multiple organizations can participate in design and testing of new solutions. The team is currently using the “interphase” of effort to refine laboratory protocol, sharpen strategies for capturing data, and deepening our understanding of the opportunity areas where lab efforts will be best focused.
BIF’s non profit platform differentiates the NHoF project from traditional product development and testing operations. Although some work in the laboratory will be proprietary, BIF’s mission to enable collaborative innovation motivates us to talk openly about our activities and experimental approach and share our learning. Most importantly, our commitment to open innovation enables us to invite broader input from the community through a project’s lifecycle. Since its launch in April, the team has held two public sessions on the NHoF program and made all of the first phase findings freely available on the web.
The team has also been working closely with private sector partners interested in innovating in the elder care environment. BIF expects that Phase II will include three to five partners with specific interest in experimenting in the lab.
In addition, Tockwotton Home will open a new 150-bed facility in 2010 in which they will dedicate a patient unit and common living areas to the Nursing Home of the Future initiative.
This will provide project partners with an opportunity to participate in a holistic redesign of the resident experience, including the physical space of the facility. This space will also create a sustainable platform for ongoing innovation in elder care.
For more information about the NHoF laboratory, contact Melissa Withers at mwithers@businessinnovationfactory.com or 401-345-6711.