Healthcare is one of the professional fields affected by ineffective planning and multiple delays within the working process. This especially refers to bureaucratic aspect of the work which produces massive negative effects on both the healthcare providers and the patients. The former are affected when there is confusion caused by complicated data processing, slow process management or inefficient planning that creates clashes and misunderstandings among the specialists. The latter are affected when the confusion in healthcare process management leads to delays in healthcare service delivery or medical errors. Business process management also referred to as BPM has been explored as an effective way to optimize the work of hospitals and medical specialists.
Hospital is a complex and multidimensional system which involves a variety of processes running simultaneously. These processes and multiple and hard to trace or systematize. Business process management aims to improve effectiveness while improving the quality of healthcare delivery process at the same time. Business process management has been used as a way to optimize working process in a number of different industries before it was recommended for healthcare. Some of the main benefits of BPM application in healthcare is are the increased transparency and measurability of the system which allows more precise evaluation of the progress, its monitoring and detailed analysis (“Clinical BPM Process Management for Improving Operational Efficiency in Hospitals” 5).
BPM helps the administrators to plan for hospitals in a better way providing it with a power to adapt (react and adjust to changes faster), align (organize and optimize processes due to their visibility), and act (detect and respond to newly occurred actionable situations) (BPM (Business Process Management) for Healthcare and Life Sciences par. 2). Besides, business process management allows the so-called orchestration of process, which includes such feature as graphical modeling of the workflow that helps the planners to envision all of its parts and introduce the required improvements, re-arrange or re-assemble the whole picture, focus on the workflow integration (Business Process Management (BPM) & Workflow par. 5).
Moreover, BPM does not only provide better transparency and visibility of the working process but also improves its financial sides such as billing, accounting, and legacy systems reducing the need for lengthy and complex bureaucratic procedures that slow down the working process and drive the clients away from the healthcare facilities (Breyfogle par. 2).
Among the main drivers or triggers for business process management in a hospital are a large number of procedures that require participation of a great number of people passing control to one another, a need for estimations and planning within these transactions, a need for synchronization of the sequence of actions conducted by different participators, and of course a need for visibility and monitoring of these actions (Giataganas par. 4). All of these triggers are present in any healthcare facility; this is why BPM is a good solution for hospitals. As shown in the video called Innovation Saves Lives: How Business Process Management can improve Patient Care, the Ottawa Hospital has already implemented BPM to improve their system; this led to the creation of the circle of care, the optimization of the whole system, and the reduction of the rates of professional miscalculations (BlueBuzzCanada).
In conclusion, BPM is an excellent way to reduce the level of tension and confusion during the medical working process, synthesize and integrate workflow and reduce the number of miscalculations caused by the inefficient process and time management.
Works Cited
BlueBuzzCanada. “Innovation Saves Lives: How Business Process Management Can Improve Patient Care.” Online video clip. YouTube. 2013. Web.
BPM (Business Process Management) for Healthcare and Life Sciences. IBM. n. d. Web.
Breyfogle, Forrest. Business Process Management System in Hospitals. 2013. Web.
Business Process Management (BPM) & Workflow. InterSystems. 2015. Web.
“Clinical BPM Process Management for Improving Operational Efficiency in Hospitals.” Inubium, 7 (2010): 1-22. Print.
Giataganas, Giannis. When should you do BPM? What are the main drivers and triggers? 2011. Web.