Case Study: ReferWell Connect
Orchestrating Complex Service Ecosystems to Eliminate User Friction
Overview ReferWell Connect is an intelligent scheduling and care coordination platform designed to untangle one of the most frustrating journeys in the healthcare ecosystem: the patient referral process. I led the research and product design for this platform, focusing on transforming a fragmented, multi-step ordeal into a seamless, single-interaction experience for both patients and care coordinators.
The Challenge: A Broken Human Journey In complex service environments, handoffs are where user experiences fail. In healthcare, when a patient needs to see a specialist, the traditional journey involves endless friction: asynchronous phone tag, outdated directory data, and blind referrals.
- The Behavioral Problem: Patients were dropping out of the funnel because the cognitive and administrative load of scheduling follow-up care was too high.
- The Operational Problem: Care coordinators lacked a unified, real-time view of provider availability, relying on fragmented systems and manual workarounds. The goal was to design a system that eliminated callbacks and “dropped handoffs” by closing the care gap in real-time.
My Role & Research Approach As the Lead Researcher and Designer, my objective was to map the physical and digital realities of the care coordination workflow.
- Workflow Audits: I shadowed care coordinators and mapped the exact friction points in their daily operations, identifying the specific moments where data silos caused delays.
- Journey Mapping: I created end-to-end service blueprints that tracked the patient’s emotional and logistical journey from the moment a care gap was identified to the moment an appointment was confirmed.
- Data Synthesis: Research revealed that the key to conversion was immediacy. If an appointment couldn’t be booked during the initial inbound or outbound interaction, the likelihood of a successful handoff plummeted.
The Solution: Designing for the “Same-Interaction” Experience Based on the research, I designed the ReferWell Connect platform around a single, driving UX principle: Schedule in the same interaction.
Key features designed to support this service flow included:
- Smart Matching Architecture: I designed proprietary matching logic interfaces that instantly surfaced the best in-network options based not just on clinical need, but on the patient’s personal preferences and location—bringing a consumer-grade UX to enterprise healthcare.
- Real-Time Ecosystem Integration: I designed seamless UI overlays that integrated with existing Electronic Health Records (EHRs), allowing coordinators to book directly into a provider’s schedule without disrupting their existing mental models or workflows.
- Closed-Loop Visibility: I designed comprehensive worklisting and reporting dashboards that shifted coordinators from a reactive posture to a proactive one, spotlighting patient status in real-time.
The Impact ReferWell Connect fundamentally redesigned the service delivery model for health plans and provider networks. By focusing heavily on user research and workflow optimization, we delivered a platform that:
- Eliminated the “Callback Loop”: Transitioned organizations from a multi-day scheduling process to instant, point-of-care booking.
- Increased User Confidence: Real-time data management reduced friction and empowered care teams with accurate, actionable directories.
- Closed the Handoff Gap: Ensured patients navigated a complex ecosystem smoothly, vastly improving both operational metrics and the human experience.
Jen Maxted 