R2 poster

Report Detail

University of Chicago Hospitals // R2 MICU experience

How well do nurses and doctors get along with computers?

Skills used: user observation, design analysis and copy writing.

In late 2008, the University of Chicago hospitals deployed 600 computers-on-wheels also known as R2 units. These units, along with multiple software deployments (EPIC), are the key parts in the computerization of the hospital's data.

My colleague and I set out to see how mobile computer stations were used by hospital staff and to understand where the experience of the R2 could be improved. The infectious disease unit suspected that hospital staff were not cleaning the R2 units as prescribed by the hospital, which gave us a starting point for our observations.

As our research progressed, a much broader story of the interplay of hospital software and the R2 on the medical intensive care unit (MICU) emerged. Halfway through our observation period, the hospital switched the recording of vitals from paper to the computer, so there was ample opportunity to observe the difficulty with behavioral change!

See indvididual pages ( Day In the Life 2, Day In the Life 3, Day In the Life 4, Day In the Life 5) the poster and final report.