TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental application of Business Process Management technology to manage clinical pathways
T2 - A pediatric kidney transplantation follow up case
AU - Andellini, Martina
AU - Fernandez Riesgo, Sandra
AU - Morolli, Federica
AU - Ritrovato, Matteo
AU - Cosoli, Piero
AU - Petruzzellis, Silverio
AU - Rosso, Nicola
PY - 2017/11/3
Y1 - 2017/11/3
N2 - Background: To test the application of Business Process Management technology to manage clinical pathways, using a pediatric kidney transplantation as case study, and to identify the benefits obtained from using this technology. Methods: Using a Business Process Management platform, we implemented a specific application to manage the clinical pathway of pediatric patients, and monitored the activities of the coordinator in charge of the case management during a 6-month period (from June 2015 to November 2015) using two methodologies: the traditional procedure and the one under study. Results: The application helped physicians and nurses to optimize the amount of time and resources devoted to management purposes. In particular, time reduction was close to 60%. In addition, the reduction of data duplication, the integrated event management and the efficient data collection improved the quality of the service. Conclusions: The use of Business Process Management technology, usually related to well-defined processes with high management costs, is an established procedure in multiple environments; its use in healthcare, however, is innovative. The use of already accepted clinical pathways is known to improve outcomes. The combination of these two techniques, well established in their respective areas of application, could represent a revolution in clinical pathway management. The study has demonstrated that the use of this technology in a clinical environment, using a proper architecture and identifying a well-defined process, leads to real benefits in terms of resources optimization and quality improvement.
AB - Background: To test the application of Business Process Management technology to manage clinical pathways, using a pediatric kidney transplantation as case study, and to identify the benefits obtained from using this technology. Methods: Using a Business Process Management platform, we implemented a specific application to manage the clinical pathway of pediatric patients, and monitored the activities of the coordinator in charge of the case management during a 6-month period (from June 2015 to November 2015) using two methodologies: the traditional procedure and the one under study. Results: The application helped physicians and nurses to optimize the amount of time and resources devoted to management purposes. In particular, time reduction was close to 60%. In addition, the reduction of data duplication, the integrated event management and the efficient data collection improved the quality of the service. Conclusions: The use of Business Process Management technology, usually related to well-defined processes with high management costs, is an established procedure in multiple environments; its use in healthcare, however, is innovative. The use of already accepted clinical pathways is known to improve outcomes. The combination of these two techniques, well established in their respective areas of application, could represent a revolution in clinical pathway management. The study has demonstrated that the use of this technology in a clinical environment, using a proper architecture and identifying a well-defined process, leads to real benefits in terms of resources optimization and quality improvement.
KW - Business process management
KW - Case management
KW - Clinical pathway
KW - Kidney transplantation
KW - Pediatrics
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U2 - 10.1186/s12911-017-0546-x
DO - 10.1186/s12911-017-0546-x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85032833248
VL - 17
JO - BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
JF - BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
SN - 1472-6947
IS - 1
M1 - 151
ER -