Critical Access Hospital Informatics
JHIM Web Exclusive
The Missing Link to Success: Using a Business Process Management System to Automate and Manage Process Improvement
An interview with Ray Hess, MSA
“Healthcare continues to face many significant challenges in its quest to provide optimal patient care. Many hospitals have instituted various process improvement methodologies to address these challenges,” the author writes. “The outcome of these efforts still produces a large volume of manual tasks that must be addressed by the caregiver. The Chester County Hospital employed a Business Process Management (BPM) engine to automate and manage several of these processes. A BPM engine can perform key tasks and interact with the clinician to decrease the manual requirements of a process. The result is reduced workloads and improved outcomes. The Chester County Hospital has been able to demonstrate significant decreases in hospital acquired MRSA infections and compliance with several CMS core measures. There are multiple items to evaluate before attempting to use a BPM engine. This paper reviews the work at Chester County, its outcomes and the considerations that were important for achieving success.”
In this Web-exclusive interview, Mr. Hess discusses the ideas behind BPM, the challenges and benefits of implementing this system, and more.
JHIM Online: What is the basic overview of Business Process Management
Mr. Hess: Business Process Management is a segment of the IT world that looks at merging process improvement efforts and using technology to leverage those process optimizations. So really—as the name suggests—you’re taking key processes within your business and trying to manage them end-to-end with consistency and accuracy. Where it comes in from the technology side is your really trying to leverage technological capabilities to assist in these business processes. It’s an engine to provide automated control of processes in an acute healthcare setting resulting in the realization of more consistent and positive outcomes. BPM is a comprehensive approach to process optimization. At the heart of BPM is an engine that automates and manages processes for the end-user.
JHIM Online: How prevalent is BPM in healthcare? How is it used in other industries?
Mr. Hess: There are many robust BPM systems on the market today. The challenge for any healthcare institution is the ability to integrate the BPM system with the hospital’s HIS system to the degree that it can monitor events within that system and provide directions to the system and its end-users. Most BPM engines are designed to interact with other systems. Unfortunately, many HIS systems are much less open and accessible. This roadblock should diminish as HIS vendors come out with the next generation of systems that employ service oriented architecture and newer interoperability standards.
In every PI project there is an explicit process with the goal of managing it as efficiently and effectively as possible. A workflow or BPM engine is used to accomplish some or all of that management electronically. BPM automation allows for a much higher degree of reproducibility, decreased variation in the execution of each process step, decreases in missed or delayed steps, fewer errors, more timely completion of the process, decreased workload for the staff and ultimately improved outcomes. Accomplishing this automation requires the successful determination of how steps on a flowchart can be made electronically “discoverable” to the BPM system and how that system can seamlessly interact with the clinician. Consequently, the resource that will be creating the automated process logic needs to be included on the PI team from its inception. This is a key factor in achieving success.
