Summary
Objectives:
Hospitals are increasingly under pressure to optimize their processes. So far, an
instrument to systematically identify the potentials for improvement of a given business
process is missing. The aim of this project is to develop such an instrument.
Methods:
Initially, central aspects of the quality of a hospital process were identified on
the basis of a systematic literature review. Secondary to that, criteria to measure
quality aspects were defined: More than 300 criteria from medical and business informatics,
economics and quality management publications were gathered and systematically aggregated.
Results:
As a result, the Process Potential Screening (PPS) instrument was developed. The
PPS is a matrix containing two axes: Axis I comprises 30 quality aspects referring
to results, execution and control of hospital processes. Axis II comprises 16 quality
criteria (e.g., customer satisfaction, time). The PPS displays approximately 400 relevant
combinations of those quality aspects and quality criteria that help to identify potentials
for improvement of a given hospital process. It utilizes different methods for the
measurement of the criteria and for application by way of individuals or groups.
Conclusions:
In using the PPS, relevant potentials for improvement were identified in ten typical
hospital processes. The instrument’s practicability must now be examined in further
studies by the final target group (e.g., quality or project managers, and the staff
responsible for processes).
Keywords
Business process - process management - process evaluation - quality management -
health informatics
