Hospital workflows
One of the many crucial but sometimes overlooked aspects of how hospitals, clinics and other medical practices reach their objectives is healthcare workflow management. As hospitals and other types of medical practices function on a day to day basis, if hospital or clinic workflow isn’t being managed properly, it can bring workflow procedure to a halt, which lowers care quality and employee well-being. The resulting aftermath usually consists of a post-crisis assessment of the problem area that in most cases sheds a new light on the healthcare workflow process. But whether it’s a primary care practice, a large hospital, or a cardiologist, one thing is for sure - the bigger the healthcare organization, the bigger the challenge it is to manage the hospital or clinic workflow.
How to improve hospital workflows is a matter that concerns senior healthcare management at every level. Perfecting hospital or clinical workflow management is an intricate business. Many decisions made by senior management about workflow process definitions affect the entire hospital environment, especially patients.
From admission to discharge, patients have to work through a series of channels, many of which can be tiresome and exasperating. Inefficient or uncontrolled patient information procedures and workflows can create considerable problems and are one of the main reasons for unnecessary patient readmission.
Increasing ROI, while still being in tune to the needs of employees and delivering a high standard of patient care is essential to the success of any healthcare organization. If employees are unhappy and patients are dissatisfied, the objective of improving hospital workflows will never be met, and in turn, will have an adverse effect on ROI.
Ways to Improve Hospital Workflows
Be Collaborative
Creating a successful healthcare workflow demands buy-in from all participants in the workflow. If just a single clinician believes a clinical workflow is faulty and decides to perform a task outside the normal procedure, this can make the whole team less productive. In a worst-case scenario, one individual's actions could negatively affect all workflow procedure processes that follow. This may motivate other individuals, and not in a good way, to attempt their own fixes. Then, before long, part if not all of the clinic workflow is significantly different than intended.
Defining workflow procedure is one of the main reasons why it's essential to include all stakeholders involved in process, implementation and management. Stakeholders will likely include department leadership, clinicians, IT managers, staff, and vendors whose products or services support the hospital workflow diagram.
Aim for the Difficult Tactics
If your hospital or clinical workflow is going to continually deliver positive patient outcomes, processes will need to go smoothly and effortlessly. Some hospital workflows are naturally more complex to complete than others. Some of these, when performed below par, are more likely to impact patient outcomes and safety in a negative way.
While you should have the resources to monitor and measure the effectiveness of all processes within a healthcare workflow, defining workflow challenge areas may be worth a closer look and require more frequent attention. Keep an eye out for disruptions in policy and workflow procedure. When problems are identified, carry out an analysis of the hospital workflow diagram to determine the cause and use the experience as an opportunity to avoid repeating it again.
Invest in Technology, But Do it Carefully
There are many technology solutions available that can help make your clinical workflow operations more efficient, with more coming online every day. Features like clinical event notifications can enhance the sharing of patient information between providers and organizations, clinic workflow checklists can help standardize and streamline care, and task management solutions give clinicians the ability to monitor workflow procedures.
Anytime you decide to invest in and implement new information technology (IT), it’s a good idea to do so wisely. Usually when an organization makes a change to its practice, especially when implementing health IT, the clinical workflow associated with clinical and practice management processes almost always changes as well. Delays in areas including patient care and communication are likely to occur if you do not take workflow procedure into account, as practice management requirements are often overlooked during the process.
Consider a Redesign
Oftentimes, starting from scratch can deliver the best results. Improving hospital workflows isn’t any different. By starting over, you can design out the workflows exactly how you determine is best. This may be more effective and easier than trying to target various individual workflow process definitions. Making small changes and then making modifications may not always address the overlying issue. One commonly used time to consider a complete clinic workflow redesign is when you identify significant duplication of processes. It can be difficult to efficiently remove duplication without then risking accidental removal of established processes.
A healthcare workflow redesign is not an overnight thing. Ensure planning involves all stakeholders involved in the workflow. You will want to simulate the new workflow procedure, identifying potential problems, fix them, and then test the workflow again until it meets expectations. Only then should it be utilized. Be sure to monitor the workflow on an ongoing basis to identify and address potential problems quickly.
If your medical group or organization is looking to increase the quality and value of patient outcomes, there may be no better area to target for improvement than your healthcare workflow. Fine-tuned hospital workflows can reduce the likelihood of staff errors and oversights, eliminate unnecessary excesses that strangle the delivery of efficient care, and ultimately keep patients on the most sensible and effective treatment path.
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This is not like other solutions that only recapture previously used codes from prior years. ForeSee ESP is expertly designed for easy implementation with any certified EHR and can adapt to virtually any healthcare workflow.