Application: Creating a Flowchart

Application: Creating a Flowchart

In an organization set up, workflow analysis is important in ensuring that resources are well utilized and activities that do not add value to the objectives of the organization are not given much attention (Dave, 2006). Flow charts are popularly used to analyze workflow as they help to highlight areas that need streamlining to ensure that the organization achieves its objectives. The paper evaluates with the aid of a flowchart the process of receiving a patient to the time the patient is discharged.

Flowchart

The patient is required to enter the facility through the gate where a gate pass is given. The patient then walks to the reception and records their details. It is at this level that the patient personal details and health problem will be captured into the system. Afterwards the patient is directed to appropriate medical personnel for consultation and diagnosis. After consultation and diagnosis, the patient is treatment and given a bill, which the patient pays, at the cashier office. The patient will then be discharged, given appointment or admitted for further check-up depending on the doctor’s recommendation. This process happens in the facility on daily basis because patients are received daily.

The first step is normally at the gate where the patient is given a gate pass by the security personnel manning the gate. At this point, no technology is applied. What is required is for the security person to use observation and his skills to assess the patient. The name and the identification number of the patient are also taken for reference and security purposes. The security personnel are mandated by the rules and policies set by the hospital management to scrutinize the patients and any other visitors that enter the facility before granting them a go ahead. Therefore, the security personnel must work and comply with these policies. They have been trained on how to execute the duties and therefore, perform their work in a professional manner.

At the welcome/reception desk, four receptionists welcome the patients to the facility. They enter the names and the health problem of the patient into the database. At this level, information system is used to store information of the patient. At this stage, information required by the receptionists is knowledge on assessment of the patients as well as the specific rooms that the patient will have to locate their doctors. The receptionist, after taking the dates of the patient then directs them to various doctors for consultation, diagnosis and treatment.

After treatment, the patient is required to visit a cashier located near the entrance and pay the bills as prescribed by the medical practitioners. The accounting department uses information technology and this ensures that records are well maintained. Incase the patient is required to purchase medicines; there is a pharmacy adjacent to cashiers office which is also digitalized. The cashier and the pharmacy are served with two people that help in executing the duties. The employees are skilled in information technology. The patient is then at discretion to leave the hospital after being served. Incase, there is need for further check up, the patient may be given appointment or admitted for closer monitoring of the progress. Three medical practitioners take care of admitted patients to ensure that they are provided with food and other emergency services.

The metric used to measure the soundness of the workflow is performance evaluation reports. This report is formulated after some time intervals by the various departments in the facility. They are, formulated through intensive evaluation and auditing of all systems in the hospitals to ensure that processes are operating well (De Carvalho et al 2012). To ensure whether the hospital is performing as per the set standards, various issues are examined such as the performance of the information systems deployed, the rate of patient complaints in the hospital, time taken to serve the customer, level of satisfaction of the patients among many others (Neely, Gregor & Platts, 1995). Therefore, this metric has proved to be successful in finding out the areas that were not doing well and those that performed well hence aiding in providing a solution.

Even though, the workflow is recommendable, there is need for improvements in adoption of technology in the facility. To enhance performance, the hospital needs to extend its networks to all the departments to ensue that appropriate decisions are made and to enhance efficiency in service delivery (Frank, 1994). For instance, security, pharmacy reception, and other departments should be connected to speed up their communications and service delivery. This will bring improvement in the workflow.

It is important to be aware of the flow of an activity to understand how it works in order to facilitate its performance (Keith, 1997). Furthermore, knowing the flow ensures proper planning as time is adequately allocated for the execution. Likewise, enough resources are provided to ensure that the tasks are performed better.

References

Dave G. (2006). “Building Applications on a Workflow Platform” Architecture Journal, April 2006. Available at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb245670.aspx

De Carvalho, E et al (2012). Workflow in Clinical Trial Sites & Its Association with Near Miss Events for Data Quality: Ethnographic, Workflow & Systems Simulation, PLoS ONE, 7(6):1-11.

Keith, H. (1997). Workflow in Context, pages 27–32. J. Wiley & Sons, 1997.

Frank, L. (1994). Managing business process as an information resource. IBM System

Journal, 33(2):326–348.

Neely, D., Gregor, J., & Platts, k. (1995). Performance Measurement System Design. International, Journal of Operations and Production Management, 15(4):80–116.