Availability & Scheduling System for Healthcare Providers
Overview
Project Summary
I led the UX design for an Availability & Scheduling System to help healthcare recruiters quickly match providers to job opportunities. Before this system, recruiters manually tracked provider availability, leading to delays, missed opportunities, and excessive back-and-forth communication. My goal was to create an intuitive, self-service availability tool that allowed providers to update their schedules while giving recruiters a fast, reliable way to search and prioritize candidates.
My Role
  • Lead UX Designer – Owned gathering requirement details, wire-framing and prototyping.
  • Lead UX Researcher – Owned research including design sprints and usability testing.
  • Workflow Strategist – Mapped out recruiter and provider pain points to optimize scheduling workflows.
  • Stakeholder Collaborator – Worked closely with recruiters, providers, and engineers to ensure understanding and buy-in.
Impact
✔ Reduced time-to-fill job openings by giving recruiters instant access to provider availability.
✔ Increased provider engagement with more providers proactively updating their availability.
✔ Improved recruiter efficiency, allowing them to prioritize outreach based on real-time availability.
The Problem
Challenges in the Existing Workflow
Recruiters needed to fill healthcare jobs within hours, but they faced major inefficiencies:
  1. Manual Tracking – Providers verbally communicated their availability, leading to outdated records.
  2. Slow Outreach – Recruiters had to call multiple providers, wasting valuable time.
  3. Lack of Provider Visibility – Providers didn’t have a centralized place to manage their availability.
  4. Missed Opportunities – Delays in contacting an available provider increased the chance of competitors filling provider jobs first.
Research & Insights
Understanding the Users
I conducted user interviews and workflow analysis to uncover pain points:
  • Five recruiter interviews – Learned how they prioritized provider availability.
  • Four provider sessions – Identified frustrations with availability tracking and gathered concept validation to ensure they could use what I was designing.
  • Iterative usability testing – Presented mockups to recruiters and providers, made changes to the design based on their feedback, then met with the same people again to optimize their feedback.
Key Findings
✔ Recruiters prioritized speed – They needed a way to quickly filter and sort providers based on job fit.
✔ Providers wanted flexibility – They didn’t want their availability to exclude them from opportunities.
✔ Automation was essential – Recruiters wanted availability updates without constant follow-ups.
The Solution
1. Self-Service Provider Availability in the Portal
  • Simple UI for providers to set, edit, and confirm availability.
  • Smart notifications prompting providers to update their schedules.
  • Flexible availability settings to prevent unnecessary exclusions.
💡 Impact: Increased provider engagement with an update tool that worked how they wanted.
2. Recruiter Search & Prioritization Tool
  • Instant search filters based on availability, location, and specialty.
  • Automated ranking of providers based on job-match probability.
  • Blackout date management to prevent outreach to unavailable providers.
💡 Impact: Reduced time-to-fill jobs by helping recruiters contact the right providers first.
3. Automated Availability Updates & Smart Alerts
  • Real-time updates when providers changed their schedules.
  • Automated alerts for recruiters when a high-match provider became available.
  • Integration with internal systems to keep records up to date.
💡 Impact: Eliminated the need for verbal availability tracking, saving recruiters hours of work
Process & Execution
Wireframes & Prototyping
  • Created wireframes to test workflows with recruiters and providers.
  • Developed a high-fidelity prototypes for clarity in testing sessions.
User Testing & Iteration
  • Conducted 9 usability tests with recruiters and providers.
  • Iterated on search filters, notification timing, and availability input methods based on feedback.
Cross-Team Collaboration & Adoption Strategy
  • Facilitated collaboration between the recruiter and the provider to align priorities and ensure a smooth adoption.
  • Documented all design details so stakeholders and engineers clearly understood the problem and the solution we gathered from recruiters and providers.
Final Outcome & Results
✔ Faster Job Placements – Recruiters could quickly find and contact the best-fit providers.
✔ More Provider Engagement – More providers actively updated their availability, reducing manual tracking.
✔ Increased Recruiter Efficiency – Automated updates allowed recruiters to focus on high-priority candidates.
Lessons Learned & Next Steps
Key Takeaways
✅ Real-time updates drove more doctors getting jobs – Automating availability tracking saved recruiters hours.
✅ Flexibility is key for providers – Designing optional availability filters ensured they weren’t excluded from jobs.
✅ Search & prioritization improve speed – Helping recruiters contact high-fit providers reduced time-to-fill rates.
Next Steps
🔹 Expand automation to predict availability trends based on past behavior.
🔹 Continue to expand and optimize for better availability visibility for the recruiter.
🔹 Conduct post launch studies to measure how well the design was adopted by a broader user base.
Visuals and Designs