Hand Hygiene Observation App
How I helped 500+ clinicians stop using paper forms and actually track hand hygiene
Infection preventionists were tracking hand hygiene observations with clipboards, typing everything twice, while admins made went hopscotching for compliance data.
I redesigned the Hand Hygiene system and launched its first mobile app that killed the paper trail and got real-time compliance data flowing to the people who needed it.
My role
UX Designer
Team
4 Fullstack Engineers, 3 Data Analysts, 1 Product Manager, 1 Product Owner
Timeline
6 months
Outcomes
Faster observations
Faster data uploads
Error-free submissions
What went wrong?
Clipboards and chaos in every hospital unit
Picture an infection preventionists tracking 50+ hand hygiene moments per shift. Clipboard. Pen. Then typing it all into a clunky 2015 web app hours later.
The waste was staggering:
Every observation recorded twice
Errors everywhere (Is that a 5 or an S?)
Admins making decisions on week-old data
The kicker? Bad hand hygiene literally kills people. We're talking about preventing hospital-acquired infections. And we're tracking it with clipboards.
Old hand hygiene observations flow
(paper → old legacy app)
THE BREAKING POINT
When compliance audits met reality
Joint Commission visit coming up. Leadership wanted real-time data.
An Inpatient observer told me she had three weeks of observations in her locker. Just sitting there. Unrecorded.
That's when they called me in:
Digitize the observation workflow
Build something people would actually use
Get real-time compliance data flowing
Six months. 500+ users. Zero room for failure.
Challenge Accepted!
my approach
Getting the real story from the people living it
I shadowed five infection preventionists over two weeks, following them through the hospital. I also ran short interviews and quick surveys with observers and unit admins.
Three things became crystal clear:
Problem 1: Two hands,
three items
They needed clipboard, pen, and sanitizer. But humans have
two hands. Math problem.
Problem 2: Double work
Write it down. Type it up. Waste of skilled preventionist time.
Problem 3: System hopscotch
Admins jumping between systems for compliance data.
The insight: Stop making infection preventionist work like data clerks. Design for how they actually move.
user testing
Three attempts to get it right
I tested different prototypes and watched observers try to give us better data capture.
The first two versions confirmed what I suspected: in time-critical clinical workflows, simplicity beats efficiency.
The solution
Three changes that fixed everything
Solution 1: Workflow that actually flows
Redesigned web app workflow before (old legacy app) / after redesign (V3)
Result: 35% faster uploads. 100% error-free at launch.
solution 02
Real-time speed without losing data quality
The mobile experience was designed for one hand and motion:
Large touch targets (reduce mis-taps)
Progressive disclosure (only show what's needed)
One-handed operation
Offline save with auto-sync
Resulting in finished rounds 20 minutes early. 40% faster recording compared to manual paper recording.
No more carrying around clipboards!
solution 03
Embedded Power BI directly into their existing workflow
We embedded Power BI dashboards directly in the product with unit views and time trends.
Live compliance rates
Unit breakdowns
Zero lag
As a result, admins no longer had to switch between systems giving them instant visibility into unit-level trends and progress.
reports redacted due to privacy.
Retrospective
The Slack message that made it worth it
Six weeks after launch, I got a message from an Infection Preventionist:
Every second we save them is a second they can spend on care. Every error we prevent might prevent an infection. Every dashboard we build helps them see problems before they become tragedies.
Time for them to actually work on prevention initiatives, and time for admins to spot problems before they become outbreaks.
Hand Hygiene Observation App
How I helped 500+ clinicians stop using paper forms and actually track hand hygiene
Infection preventionists were tracking hand hygiene observations with clipboards, typing everything twice, while admins went hopscotching for compliance data.
I redesigned the Hand Hygiene system and launched its first mobile app that killed the paper trail and got real-time compliance data flowing to the people who needed it.
My role
UX Designer
Team
4 Fullstack Engineers, 3 Data Analysts, 1 Product Manager, 1 Product Owner
Timeline
6 months
Outcomes
Faster observations
Faster data uploads
Error-free submissions
What went wrong?
Clipboards and chaos in every hospital unit
Picture an infection preventionists tracking 50+ hand hygiene moments per shift. Clipboard. Pen. Then typing it all into a clunky 2015 web app hours later.
The waste was staggering:
Every observation recorded twice
Errors everywhere (Is that a 5 or an S?)
Admins making decisions on week-old data
The kicker? Bad hand hygiene literally kills people. We're talking about preventing hospital-acquired infections. And we're tracking it with clipboards.
Old hand hygiene observations flow (paper → old legacy app)
THE BREAKING POINT
When compliance audits met reality
Joint Commission visit coming up. Leadership wanted real-time data.
An Inpatient observer told me she had three weeks of observations in her locker. Just sitting there. Unrecorded.
That's when they called me in:
Digitize the observation workflow
Build something people would actually use
Get real-time compliance data flowing
Six months. 500+ users. Zero room for failure.
Challenge Accepted!
my approach
Getting the real story from the people living it
I shadowed five infection preventionists over two weeks, following them through the hospital. I also ran short interviews and quick surveys with observers and unit admins.
Three things became crystal clear:
Problem 1: Two hands,
three items
They needed clipboard, pen, and sanitizer. But humans have
two hands. Math problem.
Problem 2: Double work
Write it down. Type it up. Waste of skilled infection preventionist time.
Problem 3: System hopscotch
Admins jumping between systems for compliance data.
The insight: Stop making infection preventionist work like data clerks. Design for how they actually move.
user testing
Three attempts to get it right
I tested different prototypes and watched observers try to give us better data capture.
The first two versions confirmed what I suspected: in time-critical clinical workflows, simplicity beats efficiency.
The solution
Three changes that fixed everything
Solution 1: Workflow that actually flows
I redesigned the entire web app workflow from scratch.
Result: 35% faster uploads. 100% error-free at launch.
Solution 2: Mobile built for motion
Real-time speed without losing data quality
The mobile experience was designed for one hand and motion:
Large touch targets (reduce mis-taps)
Progressive disclosure (only show what's needed)
One-handed operation
Offline save with auto-sync
Resulting in finished rounds 20 minutes early and 40% faster recording compared to manual paper recording.
No more carrying around clipboards!
Solution 3: Dashboard where admins live
Embedded Power BI directly into their existing workflow
We embedded Power BI dashboards directly in the product with unit views and time trends.
Live compliance rates
Unit breakdowns
Zero lag
As a result, admins no longer had to switch between systems giving them instant visibility into unit-level trends and progress.
reports redacted due to privacy.
Retrospective
The Slack message that made it worth it
Six weeks after launch, I got a message from an Infection Preventionist:
Every second we save them is a second they can spend on care. Every error we prevent might prevent an infection. Every dashboard we build helps them see problems before they become tragedies.
That's when I realized we didn't build a data collection tool. We built time. Time for them to actually work on prevention initiatives, and time for admins to spot problems before they become outbreaks.
Next project.
Next project.
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