Process Mapping - Speech or Presentation Example

?Process mapping entails drawing a picture, or map, of a process. It is a simple tool that can help understand how the system works, analyze and redesign it for better outcome. The scope and purpose of any healthcare process or project in principle are focused on the patient. In the simplest illustration if we consider consultation of a patient with a doctor as a process, the input to the consultation process is a patient with a demand for medical consultation. The output to this process might be patient is referred to any specialist doctor or diagnosed or treated. The services or care for time, diagnosis, treatments have to be managed by the individual doctor (health care provider) for converting input into output. In the large care facility or hospital, the processes are quite different and integrated. The health care delivery process can be explicitly shown as model developed by Roth (1993) (fig1 Appendix). Process mapping developed by an engineer, Frank Gilbert in early 20th century has been frequently used in the field of engineering and other industries for the last five or six decades, it is only during the 1980s health care providers in the USA began to develop the process mapping/pathway tool in ‘Managed Care’. Scope and Objective of Process Mapping It is one of the most effective ways to understand the real issues from the patient’s perspective, and to recognize opportunities for improvement. Finally, the only person who experiences the whole journey is the patient. Process mapping helps perceive accurately in making decisions and understanding based on ground reality rather than the preconceived ideas of how the service works. The field of vision of the management in a medical condition or treatment is divided into a series of sequential events, for instance, activities, interventions, or personnel involvement. The series of these events between two stages (from admission to the critical care facility to release from the hospital room) can be viewed as a patient pathway or process of care. Changing and correcting measures of the process mapping/patient pathway involve immaculate coordinated application of multidisciplinary practices to boost medical efficacy and efficiency by excluding ineffective and unnecessary steps. The resulting data by process mapping can be used to redesign the patient pathway, improving the quality and efficiency of patient management. Reviewing the care process, patient pathway is highly recommended and beneficial that should include measures to improve patients’ satisfaction or quality or cost of a particular medical service. It is imperative to emphasize that process mapping is all about doing something better than previous attempts to really understand the patient’s experience at various steps of their journey, and there is no way to find fault with. Organizing a Process Mapping Activity A process mapping operation should be a gratifying and creative experience for involved personnel. It requires a planned and coordinated approach, as even the simple and straightforward patient journeys can be tortuous, with many entangled events. Elements in developing patient/process pathways can be depicted as follow: Choosing a clinical area to be considered for the exercise of care mapping: Selecting any important area of practice/activity should be the first stage to start with. Then every possible step should be structured by drafting the whole process pathway by having written record, drawing and diagram. Senior management and clinical staff must share and agree on the objective and scope. The strategic decision is imperative, which ensures that the whole team works towards a defined goal. To begin the process, it is desirable to have a team of four or five key persons, preferably, including someone with exposure or experience of lean thinking transformation with a plan for the project and its scope in place as envisaged in a flow diagram (fig2 Appendix). The required criteria in the selection of the personnel who would take part in the process mapping pathway can be summarized as: Management and leadership; Clinicians involved in day-to-day delivery of care from a range of professional backgrounds; ‘Experts’ familiar with current evidence-base, Those providing diagnostic interventions, Those providing rehabilitation services, Project management skills Information management and data analysis skills, Communication skills and Audit skills for ongoing evaluation. Collection of data and analysis at every step for meaningful corroboration and result: Data collection should include information on each step. Monitoring of minimum and maximum time for each step reduces the chance of day to day variations that influence the data. The data is collected from every possible meeting in the multidiscipline approach, both qualitative as well quantitative information have bearing in mapping and redesigning any care path and process. Going through the patient journey includes interviews with patients and personnel as well as observing the patient journey, besides clinical settings. This provides first hand information and knowledge of patient path way. Once the patient journey is mapped, analyzes must be done to know approximate time taken for each step, time between each step (waiting time) and time taken between the first and the last step to understand the bottle necks and constrains, further to that to exactly know what add no value for the patient. Reviewing current practice including process mapping if any practice by others and revisiting every step of own process mapping will provide clear picture of key indicators like time, bottle necks, and constrains. By revising/re doing the draft pathway as frequently as possible to make it perfect and user friendly version for having smooth flow Launching care pathways This is final stage of a process map when it is put to use. Monitoring, regulating, reviewing and if required amending every step. With this perspective healthcare redesign can be best used by way of identifying the best process to achieve speedy and effective care, to flag off delays and unnecessary steps or any latent error that are built into the process, and then to redesign the process to remove them and significantly improve the quality of care. Characteristic steps in a redesign initiative might include mapping the existing care process. Analyzing where the crunch or mess exists in that process and questioning in all possible ways of why’s, what’s, when’s and if’s there is a better way. Envisage what an “ideal or optimum process might look, in quality management “jargon” re-engineering or “visioning”. Evaluating and trying out these changes to come to a concrete assumption whether the outcome brings in improvement. In the initial process, mapping stage multidisciplinary approach is applied to pool different perspectives by different personnel as different steps and delays are went through by patients. Every employed person can do his or her bit and give individual feedback that is simple, easy and straightforward and immensely effective, and gives wider picture and how the whole system could be made more efficient. The process map can be represented as a simple text list or as a formal flow chart to represent steps such as “communication”, “pharmaceutical service”, decision making or “logistic operation”. A simple illustration is given in (fig 3and fig 4 Appendix). Conclusion Process mapping is one such recently adopted tool in the health care delivery system that involves a visual picture, or map, of a process. It is a relatively simple tool that can help an organization better understand how parts of the organization work, and strive to develop and evolve with the aim to exceed the current standard and set a benchmark for others to follow. There is strong evidence that suggests immense benefits of this wonderful tool of quality management in health care. The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has enlisted a range of practical benefits using this approach in the box 1 below: Sources NHS Modernization Agency (2005) Process Mapping, Analysis and Redesign. London: Department of Health, 1-40. Roth A.V (1993). World class health care. Quality Management in Health, 1 (3), 1-9 Appendix Fig 1 Model of Health care delivery (Adopted from Roth 1993) Appendix (Continued) Appendix (Continued)-Personal details Hi! 1. This is… (Your name)…. I have graduated from Belorussian State Economics University and University of Informatics and Radio electronics. I am extremely privileged to be present before a very distinguished panel. Talking about my background, with all humility I must acknowledge the contributions of my Alma mater (Belorussian State Economics University), in developing and nurturing skills and competency during my graduation in information systems, analytical and statistical domains that will pay huge dividend in my chosen field of career in health care industry. 2. Regarding my experience I would like to brief you that I worked as Data Analyst, Project Leader and Senior Business Analyst with various large healthcare organizations and presently I have been working at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for more than two years. My job responsibility is to identify cost control mechanisms in healthcare. The job entails collecting, comparing, and analyzing information from finance, human resources, operations, clinical, quality and other systems in order to identify areas for improvement, to enhance efficiency, productivity and cost effectiveness of care. Advancing through with this project and introspection I feel learning more about management and principles of business administration will give me acumen in understanding the business concerns and challenges in the health care delivery and applying modern management principles and tools to the specific constraints and processes of rapidly changing health care industry for better outcome. In this endeavor I think it is immensely help full and gratifying to have sound knowledge of Health Economics, Strategic Planning and Business Management to put in perspective. I strongly envisage that Master Degree program in Health Administration will give me new dimension and knowledge to hone my skills and to enlighten my understanding of the nitty gritty of ever changing healthcare industry. Read More