Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 67

Closing keynote
Deborah Adler, founder of
Adler Design

also tell other people. And that's where reputation
comes from.
In talking about customer relationships, you like
to ask businesses, "What are you willing to do today that's different from what you did yesterday,
and different from that guy who can put you out
of business tomorrow?" Why is that important?
Differentiation doesn't come from the color of your
website or how nice your brochures are. It comes
through the ultimate behavior of the business. How do
we want to be known, how do we want people to see
us, and what do we want them specifically to say about
us? What business would ever want to be described
using the same language that you would use to define
a competitor or somebody who's not any good?
Everyone is too busy focusing on profitability, attracting/retaining employees, and all of those elements of
business process, but they're not looking at the bigger
picture of being able to differentiate themselves as a
tool to fuel their demand and grow the business.
What advice do you have for healthcare organizations adapting to a more competitive, postreform world with new models of care delivery,
reimbursement structures, and changing customer expectations?
Stop waiting for someone to push a button, develop
an app, or champion legislation that's going to make
it easier to run your organization in ways that deliver
exceptional, meaningful value to those you serve. Also,
frankly, healthcare organizations need to face the reality
that they're competing for hearts, minds, and dollars
the same way any other business has to. We don't
and can't win in any market competing as we did in
the past.

Healthcare Design: After starting your career, you went
back to school to earn a Master of Fine Arts in design
from the School of Visual Arts in New York. It was while
working on your senior thesis that you got your first
experience in healthcare design. Tell us what happened.
Deborah Adler: I was going to develop my thesis on curly hair
and create this mecca with products for different ethnicities and
curl types because back then, there really wasn't much out there for curly hair. Then
9/11 happened and suddenly my idea didn't seem that important to me and I felt
like I needed to do something that would really make a difference. Around that same
time, I had this incident where my grandmother had taken my grandfather's medication. They both had the same first initial-"H," for Helen and Herman Adler-and she
mixed up the labels. I wanted to try to change that, so I came up with this new idea
to develop a whole system to package prescription medication. Prior to launching my
firm, I partnered with Target to develop the ClearRx prescription packaging system.
What I learned through that project, and many others since then, is this idea that if
you really want to try to make a difference in the world, you have to go to the gemba.
What's the gemba?
Gemba is a Japanese term that translates to "the real place" or "the place where the
work is done." It's mostly used in Lean manufacturing. In this case, gemba would
have been my grandmother's medicine cabinet; it's where we can see what really
happens and what needs changing.
How has this approach helped you on a recent project?
I was asked to redesign a wound care kit. We did a study where 68 nurses were
given a state-of-the-art dressing and asked to apply it onto a wound on a model. All
of the kits came with instructions, but not one nurse applied the dressing correctly.
We went into the gemba to learn how to improve the kit by redesigning it to how
people actually use the product. For example, we put a big picture of the contents
on the outside of the package so nurses could see what was inside before opening
the foil wrap, which would reduce the chance of wasting it or it becoming unsterile.
We gave nurses step-by-step instructions that were easy to understand; some quick
illustrations; and a sticker where you could put the time, date, and your initials on the
actual dressing, so that the next nurse knew how long the dressing had been on and
when it should be changed. When we gave them the redesigned version, there was
an 88 percent increase in compliance.
What's a takeaway that you want our audience to go home with from your
presentation at the Healthcare Design Expo & Conference?
The personal is really the universal, and we should all be paying attention to the
little things and to experiences we're observing. The best place to be right now is in
healthcare. Designers have a huge say in what's going on. It's a very ripe moment.
The collaborations between designers and architects and physicians and patients
and nurses, everyone seems more open now than ever before to sharing information and innovating in this space. Now that hospitals are no longer single facilities but
systems, there's more need for continuity of patient experience throughout all of the
different touch points on the continuum of care. Design needs to get involved on that
most basic level of trying to make sure it's a seamless experience for patients. HCD
Anne DiNardo is senior editor of Healthcare Design. She can be reached at anne.
dinardo@emeraldexpo.com.
HCDmagazine.com 11.15

67


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Healthcare Design - November 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Design - November 2015

Healthcare Design - November 2015
Contents
HCD Online
Editorial
Monitor
The Center
The Retailing of Healthcare
Mixed Methods
Come Together
The Driver’s Seat
Generation Next
Going Deep
New Neighbor
Ready, Set, Show
Construction
Research
Special Advertising Section: Buyers Guide
Special Advertising Section: Project Watch
First Look
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Healthcare Design - November 2015
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Cover2
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 1
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Contents
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 3
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 4
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 5
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - HCD Online
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 7
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Editorial
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 9
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 10
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 11
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 12
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 13
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Monitor
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 15
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 16
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 17
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 18
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 19
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 20
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 21
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 22
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 23
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 24
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 25
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 26
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 27
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - The Center
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 29
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - The Retailing of Healthcare
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 31
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 32
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 33
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 34
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 35
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 36
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 37
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 38
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 39
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 40
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 41
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Mixed Methods
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 43
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 44
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 45
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 46
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 47
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 48
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 49
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Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 51
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 52
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 53
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 54
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 55
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Come Together
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 57
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 58
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 59
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 60
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 61
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 62
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 63
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 64
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 65
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - The Driver’s Seat
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 67
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Generation Next
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 69
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 70
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 71
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 72
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 73
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 74
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 75
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Going Deep
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 77
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 78
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 79
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 80
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 81
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - New Neighbor
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 83
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 84
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 85
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Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 93
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Ready, Set, Show
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 95
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 96
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 97
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 98
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 99
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 100
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 101
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 102
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 103
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 104
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 105
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Construction
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 107
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 108
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 109
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Research
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 111
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 112
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 113
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Special Advertising Section: Buyers Guide
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 115
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 116
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 117
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 118
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 119
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 120
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 121
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Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 156
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 157
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 158
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Special Advertising Section: Project Watch
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 160
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 161
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 162
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 163
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 164
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 165
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 166
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 167
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - First Look
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Cover3
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - Cover4
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - AIA1
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - AIA2
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - AIA3
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - AIA4
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - AIA5
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - AIA6
Healthcare Design - November 2015 - AIA7
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Healthcare Design - November 2015 - AIA20
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