The best software for quality and risk management.Designing, optimising and implementing processes: it is a profession in itself. Process management is one of the key focus areas in quality assurance – it is often central to quality models such as ISO standards or the INK model, and for good reason. In practice, it often turns out that this can still be a challenge for healthcare organisations. Our client, the Wilhelmina Hospital Assen (WZA), is continuously working on optimising processes. In this article, we dive deeper into a concrete example of how they do this.
Achieving smooth processes is not that easy. One of the reasons for this is, at the same time, the hallmark of processes: namely, that multiple people from different organisations, departments, teams and hierarchical levels are involved. The goal is to achieve optimal, efficient, effective, safe and reliable cooperation.
Another is that processes require you to align quite a number of activities. Kees has successfully designed, optimised and implemented a number of processes at the WZA, focusing on optimal user convenience.
Kees says: “What used to be a laborious process, with a lot of uncertainty, delays, quality issues and unnecessary costs, has now become a streamlined and reliable process. That is what you want when you strive for quality and continuous improvement. It provides many benefits: not only internally, but also for the patient, for the finance department and ultimately the entire organisation.”
In the specific example of the WZA, it concerns the acquisition of new equipment (CMT). CMT stands for acquisition of medical technology (MDR/Medical covenant). The process set up by Kees is supported by Zenya FLOW. With our workflow management software, you set up forms and workflows precisely to match your organisation and processes.
According to Kees, these are the starting points for the smooth process of purchasing new medical equipment:
A process can consist of 15 process steps, depending on the type of application. Kees first broke down the CMT process into five clear stages:
Kees says that at each stage, the right professionals are involved (relevant experts), depending on the type of request. This could mean, for example, involving Infection Prevention, or the Implant Specialist, Medical Technology or an the ICT department. The Procurement Department is process owner of the entire process.
Zenya FLOW ensures that the right professionals receive a task or email at the right time containing all the necessary information and additional questions. What questions these should be? Kees discussed and coordinated that with all involved so that indeed the right things are shared and recorded. “Involving the various professionals, who have to do the work, is obviously a key success factor to achieve an optimal process. Each stage is reviewed and released by the right people,” Kees explains.
An additional advantage of Zenya FLOW is that all relevant forms and documentation are stored and accessible in the file. This way, you have everything at your fingertips and can see the status of the request at any time, or you get proactive signals that actions are not completed within the agreed time.
When designing a ‘standard’ process, one of the biggest challenges is determining what is the standard and what are exceptions. Kees even automated an alternative route through the process for some exceptions, but also makes it clear that you should not want to control all exceptions with the same process.
Kees: “In the past two years, about 230 applications have gone through this renewed process with great satisfaction from all involved.” It is fair to say that this is therefore a textbook example of what can be achieved when you (re)design and facilitate a process properly with a well-functioning workflow management system.
Meanwhile, our workflow management software is used by more than 400 satisfied healthcare organisations for all kinds of processes: incident management, improvement management, complaint management and more.
Curious about more success stories? You can read them here.
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