CHLA: Baby Steps LA
Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA), a top ranking children’s hospital in the US, set out to understand what variables prevented parents from pursuing follow up care after their child is discharged from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). CHLA’s research findings indicated that the complexity of the discharge process, along with the emotional stress of the transition from the NICU to home, makes it difficult for parents to absorb important information about their baby’s diagnosis, medication, and care.
The Challenge
Children's Hospital of Los Angeles is one of the top-ranking children's hospitals in the US. CHLA set out to understand what prevented parents from pursuing follow-up care after NICU discharge.
Their research findings revealed a critical gap. The complexity of the discharge process, combined with emotional stress, makes care transitions difficult.
The discharge meeting is a critical juncture. Care teams walk parents through essential information such as:
• Their baby's diagnosis
• Multiple medications with specific dosing schedules
• Warning signs to watch for
• Specialist appointments to schedule
• Complex care plans they'll need to execute at home
Parents, in the most emotionally overwhelming moment of their lives, simply couldn't absorb all the information.
These are some of the most vulnerable babies in the healthcare system. They need consistent, coordinated care after discharge. But the very process designed to set families up for success was overwhelming them instead.
CHLA needed a solution that met families where they actually were, not where the healthcare system wished they'd be. They needed a way to put critical clinical information in parents' hands exactly when they needed it, in a format they could actually absorb and use.
CHLA challenged Sidebench to design a patient-facing product that could bridge this gap. The goal was supporting families through the terrifying transition from hospital to home, while ensuring the complex care plans these babies required didn't get lost in translation.
Our Approach
We needed to understand the care journey for new parents and NICU staff during the NICU experience. We conducted thorough user research using multiple clinical and behavioral frameworks:
• Clinical observation
• Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) observation
• US Social Security Administration observation
• POEMS framework
• Focus groups with parents and caregivers
• Care mapping
After completing these observations and interviews, we had extensive qualitative data. We used the affinity diagram method to organize large amounts of data into salient clinical and behavioral themes.
We entered our affinity diagram workshop with transcripts from four focus group sessions. Two hours and 200 sticky notes later, we had identified themes to guide our product design. We compiled observations into user personas to serve as a guiding framework for understanding new parents and caregivers. We also created detailed user journey mapping.
Using CHLA's initial research plus our extensive observations, we determined the optimal solution. A NICU navigation app would address the care coordination and health literacy gaps we uncovered.
AFFINITY DIAGRAM
USER PERSONAS
USER JOURNEY MAPPING
What We Built
Trusted CHLA curated content is readily available on the app, and NICU staff members are present during discharge to help “favorite” content for each family, to best cater to the needs of each family’s NICU baby.
Each baby’s diagnosis, doctors, and prescribed medications are added to their profile, enabling parents to remember important information about their baby’s diagnosis and treatment when communicating with different care teams about their baby’s health. 
Predefined checklists or ‘To Do’s’ are an excellent source of consolidated information for parents who may not have been able to remember all of the next steps for their babies from the discharge process.
Clinical Outcomes
17,000 families supported
- 30,000+ app downloads
- 4.7-star patient satisfaction rating
“Sidebench’s support goes beyond a standard business partnership. They are truly committed to helping the families we hope to assist with this project. I definitely encourage others to form a partnership with their team.”
Ashwini Lakshmanan, MD
Clinical Professor, Pediatrics
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