Hospital Workflow Analysis is a term that many have heard but few can clearly define. The importance of performing hospital workflow analysis prior to any system implementation should not be overlooked. After all, if you do not understand how staff and systems currently work, then how can you properly prepare for change?
Workflow Analysis can be defined as an assessment and evaluation of current operational processes within a system to identify opportunities for improvement, focusing on processes that will likely require redesign.
Some of the benefits of performing a workflow analysis are:
- Saves Money
- Increases Customer Satisfaction
- Get Results Quicker
- Increase accountability and transparancy
- Serves as a Template that can be Applied to Similar Processes
Applied Management Systems’ (AMS) project approach consists of observing current processes and discussing with “affected” staff their role in the specific process, including administrative staff, RNs, physicians, and ancillary services. If the project is a new system implementation, then interviews with the “users” are arranged in order to understand the current hospital workflow and overarching culture of the environment.
Current processes are documented via flow charting/process mapping and then AMS provides documentation on how and where the current process will change with new system implementation. AMS may meet with software vendors or perform a site visit to other user hospitals to investigate the successes and issues with similar implementation.
AMS documents any issues that may impact implementation and provides recommendations to assist in ironing out issues prior to Go Live. Once the processes have changed or systems implemented, AMS will assess if the processes outlined prior to “Go Live” match what is actually being performed and will re-engineer the hospital workflow as needed.
AMS works closely with their clients as a thorough hospital workflow analysis combined with careful design, build, implementation and support can mitigate the risk of implementing new technology.