Case Study: Hospital BPM Case Study

Project Name:

Establishing effective process-based management

Industry:

Medicine

Achievements:

• Pathway between strategy and operations via process review
• Documentation of hospital process architecture
• Process performance measures for key processes
• Process governance scheme
• Briefing of hospital executives and managers

Context, Problem & Solution 

Brussels has a population of over one million and an area of 160 square kilometres divided into 19 communes. An ambitious project envisions a new hospital to be built as a flagship, with a similar new hospital built in each of the communes over the next five years. The objective is that with increasing immigration and significant changes within the European Union, the country’s healthcare infrastructure must remain self-sufficient.

A small executive team has started on the hospital strategy that includes recruiting employees from overseas to avoid causing staffing problems elsewhere in the country. Thus, there is a need for a reusable reference model for hospital operational excellence.

The Zerwaste has been hired to develop an overall strategy, divided into strategy themes and a strategy map. Our task is to translate this into:

• a hospital process architecture
• process performance measures
• process management measures

As well as becoming a central artefact of an integrated business architecture for patient-driven healthcare delivery, it is vital to ensure that the process architecture integrates with patient safety and quality standards required for accreditation by the Joint Commission International (JCI) global standards for hospital health care delivery.

Training courses, workshops, and executive briefings will help prepare executives and staff for the process analysis work period, to ensure they have a clear understanding of the theory and practice of process-based management.

Once the key high-level processes have been defined, performance targets will be needed. Cross functional processes are the only way any organization can deliver value to its customers/patients and stakeholders, and it is important to know whether the processes are working. Process performance measures must reflect the hospital’s strategic objectives, operational requirements, and accreditation standards.

Recommendations will be made for the design and implementation of process governance mechanisms that integrate with patient safety and quality governance. In addition, the Zerwaste will provide advice to the hospital’s CEO and deputy CEO regarding the development of business process theory and practice to achieve hospital healthcare process excellence.

Results

The project will deliver numerous benefits for this hospital and those yet to be built:

• High-level business processes for ongoing process modelling, management, and improvement
• An integrated management and operations model linking strategy to business processes
• Defined care delivery and support processes, supporting hospital accreditation
• Accelerated IT systems development
• Enhanced understanding of process-based management along with the tools for maintenance
• Development of a hospital business process reference model to be used by the other 18 hospitals

Summary

Applying process-based management techniques to the design and operation of a complete hospital allows for the documentation of a business process architecture. This provides an opportunity to develop a global reference model for hospital healthcare operational excellence.