Process Improvement in Health Care: Overall Resource Efficiency

• Activity Number: 282
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Quality and Productivity
• Author(s): Jeroen de Mast and Benjamin Kemper*+
• Companies: IBIS UvA and IBIS UvA
• Keywords: resource management ; six sigma ; lean thinking ; business process re-engineering ; line balancing

Abstract

This paper aims to develop a unifying and quantitative conceptual framework for healthcare processes from the viewpoint of operations management. The work adapts standard models from operations management to the specifics of healthcare processes. We propose concepts for organizational modeling of healthcare processes. In addition, we propose an axiological model which breaks down general performance goals into process metrics. The connection between both types of models is made explicit as a system of metrics for process flow and resource efficiency. The framework is generic, and will need modifications and refinements for specific applications. The conceptual models offer exemplars for practical support in process improvement efforts, suggesting to project leaders how to make a diagrammatic representation of a process, which data to gather, and how to analyze and diagnose a process's flow and resource utilization. By providing conceptual models and practical templates for process diagnosis, the framework relates many disconnected strands of research and application in process improvement in healthcare to the unifying pursuit of process improvement.