Compass Cases

Map a patient's journey

Become a healthcare ethnographer. Talk with one real person about their experience, discover everyone who cared for them, and build your own ecosystem map, just like the cases on this site.

The written steps

How to run your ethnography

The film shows the whole arc. Here is the same process in detail, so you can follow it start to finish. Work with one patient, at their pace, and let their story lead.

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Start here: get consent

Before your first real conversation, share the consent form, answer any questions, and get it signed. Taking part is always the patient's choice. Download the consent form (Word)

1

Choose your patient

Find someone who has moved through the healthcare system and is willing to share, a family member, a friend, a neighbor, a mentor. It works best when their journey involved more than one visit or more than one kind of provider.

Ask permission early, and explain what the project is: a map of the people in their care, not their private medical details.
2

Prepare your questions

Write a few open-ended questions that invite a story rather than a yes or no. Your goal is to trace the path of their care and notice everyone who touched it, including the people working behind the scenes.

Questions to start with

  • Tell me the story of what happened, from the very beginning.
  • Who was the first person you saw? What did they do?
  • Who did they send you to next, and why?
  • Was anyone helping behind the scenes you never met, a lab, a scheduler, an insurance person?
  • Who at home or in your community helped you through it?
  • Who explained things clearly? Who did you trust?
  • Looking back, roughly how many different people were part of your care?
3

Have the conversation

Sit down with the patient, and with a family member or caregiver if they would like. Listen more than you talk. Take notes, or record only if they agreed to it on the consent form. When they mention a person, gently ask what that person did and who came next.

Follow the thread. Every "and then they sent me to..." is a new person for your map.
4

List everyone you found

Afterward, write down every person who was part of the patient's care, with their role. Do not worry about order yet. Include family and community helpers, not just clinicians. This list is your cast.

5

Sort them into four groups

Give each person a color by the kind of role they played. These are the same four groups used across the Compass Cases maps.

Family & community

The people at home and in the neighborhood who helped.

Direct clinical care

Those who saw and treated the patient in person.

Extended care team

Support roles just beyond the exam room.

Systems & science

The people and systems working behind the scenes.

6

Build your ecosystem map

Put the patient in the center. Arrange the people around them in rings by color: family closest, then direct care, then the extended team, then systems and science on the outside. You can sketch it on paper, use sticky notes, or build it digitally.

Draw a line from the patient outward through the order their care actually happened. That path is their journey.
7

Reflect and share

Count the people. Ask yourself: how many did it take to care for one person? Who surprised you? Which roles had you never heard of? Present your map and tell the patient's story through it, the way these three cases do.