Business Processes Analysis: Business Process Re-engineering in Healthcare Mgt

Business Processes Analysis
Name:
Institution:
Introduction
The health care provision facilities are complex institutions let alone the processes of health care provision that are carried out in the facilities. There are complex therapies, professionals, medical specializations, equipment and more often than not there are a number of units that are involved as there are different organizations (Bertolini, Bevilacqua, Ciarapica & Giacchetta, 2011). Integration of all these aspects has been one of the tricky huddles alongside the coordination, with respect to finding the right opportunities. Introducing the aspects of coordination and integration would have to respect that of specialization considering that it is responsible for the transfer of the knowledge and creation of the same within the contexts of the hospitals that are defined by the high technological and professional advancements. In the other business sphere such as the industry arenas, many efforts have been put towards the implementation of the total quality managements alongside other tools such as the business re-engineering (Stefanov & List, 2002). There have been studies that indicate that some of the hospitals have tried to apply the same tools to make sure that their services are oriented towards the customer satisfaction. In Singapore, another study showed that most of the patients are not happy with the level of health care and quality involved despite the fact that most of the hospitals had sought to adopt the quality tools. Same case was reported in the United States of America in the year 1993, where the patients were not happy with the quality of services rendered at the hospitals despite the adoption of the quality management tools. Some of the reasons for the failure of the health care revolution have the lack of the doctors, nurses and the administrative staff lacking the will to change with the times and conditions or basically lacking the motivation to do the same. It has also been cited that most of the medical practitioners do not have the basic knowledge of the patients needs or in other scenarios there has been poor implementation of the strategies (Bertolini, Bevilacqua, Ciarapica & Giacchetta, 2011).
Processes analysis
Due to the complexity of the operations at the hospitals, especially with respect to the scheduling of the patients operations, transplants and other functions there has been a series of models that have used to simulate the scenarios. All these models have been used to try and bring about the revolution of the systems, by helping the managers to understand the flaws and how best they can be redeemed. Some of the simulations have been used for the assessment of the waiting lists, where the ‘what if’ element is applied to establish if the elective procedures of the list can be refined within the health care systems that are publicly financed. This also allows the managers to try out the different aspects of the resource levels so as to determine the implementation impact (Visual Paradigm, 2013). As such the simulations are quite helpful to the managers as they can be used in managing the flow of the patients in the facilities and the resource allocation as well to the maximum benefit of the patients and the medical practitioners, while still making sure that the health care quality is at per with the minimum expectations of the patients and the general public.
Event driven process chains (EPC)
Using the event driven process chains (EPC) methodology this paper looked into the operations of the Parma hospital Neurosurgery ward. To assess the ward management processes at the wards, the report used the quality management techniques and the business process re-engineering (BPR), to help them come up with the most appropriate solutions to the flaws in the system. EPC based frameworks can be easily be redefined in such a way that they can analyze and give projections of the future, which would g along way into improving the level of work flow and the general quality of the services that are offered at the wards. The health care center are associated with the complexity of the communication and the fact that most o the players at the health care centers are decision makers. Understanding this level complexity as compared to the other players in other industries is a step closer to unearthing the best solution packages for the same.
Methodology
In the methodology, the BPR was applied in trying to determine if the processes at the wars can be improved in the future. To do this the critical processes had to be established by mapping all the company’s processes. This helped with the identification of the processes that were critical to the success of the company, giving it the competitive edge. The critical processes that determine the rate of success of the company were then re-engineered, to help develop the projected experimental processes which were then monitored through a feedback mechanism at a continuous rate. The basics of the EPC methodology include the building blocks which are the functions of the company at the various levels. There is also the element of events which are the situations that describe what happens before and after the functions that has been identified (Bertolini, Bevilacqua, Ciarapica & Giacchetta, 2011). Then there are the logical connectors, which are the connections that exist between the different event and the functions within the company. These are the components that make the EPC and help the managers to easily understand the company and develop the various strategies that can be implemented at the different levels to make sure that the level of services is quality and the work flow is also credible enough to warrant the satisfaction of the patients. There are a number of programs that are used in the formulation of the EPC which include the ADONIS, ARIS, VISIO, and SEMTALK among others. All of which are developed by different companies including Microsoft (Bruni, 2011).
Parma hospital surgery ward
The case study as mentioned earlier involved the Parma hospital surgery ward, which has a number of scheduled operations and other that are not scheduled, but they all find the time and space to be carried out. This is a ward that categorically deals with the peripheral nerves the central nerves and the cranial nerves. In the modeling process of the ward processes some two main categories of the resources which included the human resources and the physical resources. With the definition of the resources the managers had the chance of developing the simulations with the ‘what if’ elements. As such they could simulate processes such as the elective operations. The elective operations were concerned with the postponement of certain surgical operations on specific patients from the waiting list, without the danger of loosing the patients or putting them in harms way. There were several processes that came up after the analysis of the system such as the patient management. Patient management was the split into several other subdivisions that included the patient management on arrival. These were all the patients that came from the other wards, accidents and the emergency departments and required the neurosurgical attention (Bertolini, Bevilacqua, Ciarapica & Giacchetta, 2011). After the assessment of the patients the medical practitioner may decide to have the patients kept for observation, taken for further clinical and laboratory investigation, the patient may even be redirected or taken in for the emergency.
The patients who would be taken for the observation would be informed and then admitted in the wards. There are three scenarios that are associated with the observation of the patients, which include improvement, deterioration and stationary state. In the case of deterioration the patients would have to be taken to the radiological emergency examination. This may involve surgery on the patient or otherwise, depending on the diagnosis given. If the patient is taken in for surgery then the end of the operation on the patients marks the start of the post-operation stay in the hospital as the patient waits to recuperate, after which they are discharged (Nüttgens,1999). In the other case were the patient is not taken in for surgery, they are taken back to the observation, where the three scenarios are likely to take place. This therefore may prompt patient to be discharged or transferred if they are found to be improving or stationary and may eventually leave the hospital. In the event that the patient may need surgery which may not be in the near future they are elective and thus candidates for the waiting list.
Where the patients require further investigations, they are informed as in the previous case and their hospitalization process begins. This means that the patient would have to be taken through the various tests to determine the ailment of the patient. There are two scenarios that may result form the findings of the tests, one which is that the condition or the disease may be impossible to diagnose at the moment and therefore requires that there be formulation of the diagnosis or the need to perform a fresh analysis. Formulation of the diagnosis means that the scenario with surgery is first considered and the one without is then addressed. The latter case is indicative of a patient that can be discharged from the hospital. Subsequently the former case calls for immediately surgery or the patient is put on the waiting list. This also means that another sub level can be established where the patients that are due for operation in the near future are put under observation, much like was the case with the patients that were taken on arrival.
There is also the third section of patients that require emergency attention, all of whom are handled under the emergency management. These are patients who are taken through the immediate activation if the surgery procedures that includes the preparation of the ward and the patient as well as the activation of the medical practitioners who are going to take part in the surgery. By all means the patients must be operated on regardless of the fact that there is space at the wards ready. As such most of the time the operation on the patient runs concurrent with the administrative procedures of booking the patient in the hospital, after which the post operative stage begins which includes the hospitalization for recovery and later on the discharge process.
During the simulation of the processes at the hospital the first models that were designed, related to the processes as they are at the moment. This was in a bid to identify the various bottlenecks that could be identified along the current system, including the resources and delays among others. The second phase of the simulation involved a model that would see the various bottlenecks eliminated from the hospital processes, with optimized resource used and allocation (Bertolini, Bevilacqua, Ciarapica & Giacchetta, 2011). All of the simulations of the processes at the hospital were carried out using the ARIS program. The variables included the frequency of the starting the various proc...