A Modern Process Perspective, Process Mapping, and Simulation in Health Care : Opportunities and IT Infrastructural Needs

• Many of the anticipated benefits from IT investments in health care have still not materialized. This is certainly true in many industries and organizations, and the reasons behind this development are many. However, health care is somewhat special in the sense that most health care organizations are still functional organizations, instead of focusing on patient value through the entire care process. This, together with questionable IT handling, might begin to explain why possible IT benefits in health care, still, are elusive. Furthermore, today, health care professionals and managers – especially on top managementl evels – often claim that their organizations in fact are “process oriented”, and that one should approach health care from a process perspective in order to utilize the present IT related benefits; such as increased service quality, cost efficiency, and enhanced communication. In this paper we investigate how well founded the concept of process orientation really is – by examining IT/IS infrastructures, and procedures for process definition, visualization, andevaluation – at a prominent hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. A case study ofthe organization and interaction of the emergency and radiology departments at the same hospital (using process mapping and data analysis) reveals data fragmentation, incompatible data, and disparate information systems. Resulting in difficulties regarding process definition and analysis. This, in turn, makes the use of innovative IT-based tools such as simulation, problematic. The implications of this, and the contextual factors, are also discussed and some final recommendations for smooth digitization are put forth.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

IT

digitization

process mapping

process orientation

data analysis

discrete event simulation (DES)

health care

Business studies

Företagsekonomi

Business Studies

företagsekonomi

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