Patient journey mapping: Current practices, challenges and future opportunities in healthcare

Abstract

Patient Journey Maps are an emerging concept that visually map each interactive touchpoint that the patient experiences as they navigate the care continuum. The purpose of this article is to: 1) Identify the ways that patient journey mapping has been used to identify efficiencies and inefficiencies in the healthcare process from a patient perspective, 2) Identify the type of approaches that have been documented to visually identify the patient journey, 3) Identify how information tools can be taken into account to improve gaps identified by patient journey mapping; and 4) Detail what patient journey visualization and mapping tools currently exist (and are used) in research and healthcare practice. A scoping review literature exploration, following the Arksey and O’Malley Framework (2005) was conducted in the PubMed database, with a focus on English publications only, using the search terms “patient journey map.” Two researchers iteratively assessed the articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria; 30 articles were included in the study. A thematic analysis was conducted and the findings were tabulated in the data extraction table. The patient journey map has considerable promise but continues to be an underutilized resource in industry - further research and standardization is required to increase adoption in the healthcare setting.

Keywords

• patient journey mapping
• healthcare journey map
• consumer health informatics
• user experience
• visualization
• diagrams
• scoping review
• service delivery improvement