Aetna - Contextual Inquiry

Background Research

To understand our client and their problem statement, our team InfoHunters conducted a preliminary research to understand where Aetna and its subsidiaries are placed within the current healthcare market.

The objective of this background research was to provide our group with further insight on our client as a whole, its subsidiaries and to investigate research conducted on methods of communication at similarly structured companies.

I focused my inquiry primarily on:

• Common barriers to communication at workplace
   
• Internal communication methods used in other organizations
   
• Best practices for internal communication in general

INTERVIEW PROTOCOLS

After the background research, each of us in the team presented our findings and tried to find common issues and that surfaced. It helped us identify our prospective interviewees that we would talk to and prepare interview protocols for each of them.

We decided to interview at least one member from each of the teams suffering a communication gap:

• Account Management team
• Client-Setup team
• Audit team

Interviews

Through these interviews, I was able to gain insight into some key pain points that each client team was suffering from. 
Our team then gathered that information and began understand the relation between each factor and come up with insightful mapping. 

AFFINITY WALL MAPPING

After completing annotations for all the interviews, my team and I began working on building an Affinity Wall.
The aim was to shape all the findings into a tangible structure and create their visual representation.

We divided our annotations (sticky notes) into four color-coded categories (yellow, blue, pink, green) where each belonged to one category. 
Then as the process went further along, we continued sorting our investigations into columns that represented the workflow and a hierarchical map began to take shape.

Furthermore, we grouped the existing notes with other columns who had some relationship and started forming clusters. 
All of them together formed larger structures and in the end, we had a labelled affinity wall illustrating the larger theme and higher-level issues of the underlying problem. 

Our Recommendations

After building the Affinity Wall and conducting a root-cause analysis, we submitted a final report suggesting some technical and socio-management solutions.
Since the underlying issue was excessive email chains and shared-form returns between the two client teams, we came up with some suggested best practices and solutions that could help optimize the form-sharing process as well as increase communication between the Account Management and Client-Setup team.
 

Technical recommendations

• Centralized Database addressing the one common issue of 'too many handoffs' of the customer data.
   
• Including validation of input in the form data would help create the central database which allows for live entry of information.
   
• Using an integrated form over email attachments, thereby reducing the callbacks and email returns; also help in easing the frustrations the employees are currently having with the heavy email volume. 
   
• A Ticketing System can be implemented to keep track of each activity related to the shared form. This way, all the changes and comments added to the form could be stored in a log and later assessed by the team members; all the form-related data would be safely stored in a single repository. 
   
• Additionally, validation of input in form data would help create the central database which allows for live entry of information. This can provide access for multiple parties and reduce the wait-time between data handoffs. The main issue with optimizing the BIF form which is used to collect the client’s data can also be addressed. 
   
• Consider using alternative communication methods which conform to the company’s policies, reduce the overhead of email communication and help maintain project status and resources between departments/teams. 

Management recommendations

• Since both the Account Management team and Client-Setup teams belong to different subsidiaries, we need to ensure that their ideologies about handling the BIF process should be synchronized. Each team needs to be made aware of the progress and findings of the other team and establish common ground based on the activities around the BIF. 
   
• Hence, we suggest appointing a trained personnel who would act as a liaison between both the teams. He/she would be handling all the queries that any team member may have and have knowledge about workings of both the teams. Maintaining a single point of contact would aid in solving the confusion and lack of updates between the two teams and increase their productivity and effectiveness.
   
• We also sensed the need for cross-training between both the teams as each belonged to a different subsidiary before being unified under the hood of Aetna.
   
• Further, we recommended the management to hold quarterly meetings or training session which can generate knowledge transfer among the concerning teams. 

• Since most of the team members work from diverse locations across the country, having such meetings can help them by not only staying connected and updated with the project happenings but also exchange of their respective ideas. 
  To solve this issue, our team suggests the management of the parent company to start an Incentive Program, especially for the Account Management team. This would generate motivation amongst employees and ensure that they deliver a bug-free data to the Client-Setup team. 

We firmly believe that these recommendations will help both teams to work together effectively and continue to support Aetna in their mission of providing quality healthcare to people.