Journal:Experimental application of business process management technology to manage clinical pathways: A pediatric kidney transplantation follow-up case
| Full article title | Experimental application of business process management technology to manage clinical pathways: A pediatric kidney transplantation follow-up case |
|---|---|
| Journal | BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making |
| Author(s) | Andellini, Martina; Riesgo, Sandra Fernandez; Morolli, Federica; Ritrovato, Matteo; Cosoli, Piero; Petruzzellis, Silverio; Rosso, Nicola |
| Author affiliation(s) | Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Openwork Srl |
| Primary contact | Email: martina dot andellini at opbg dot net |
| Year published | 2017 |
| Volume and issue | 17 (1) |
| Page(s) | 151 |
| DOI | 10.1186/s12911-017-0546-x |
| ISSN | 1472-6947 |
| Distribution license | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Website | https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12911-017-0546-x |
| Download | https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-017-0546-x (PDF) |
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Abstract
Background: To test the application of business process management (BPM) 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 we monitored the activities of the coordinator in charge of case management during a six-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 integration of event management, and the efficient collection of data 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 resource optimization and quality improvement.
Keywords: clinical pathway, kidney transplantation, pediatrics, case management, business process management
Background
During recent years, two of the most important goals in healthcare have been the optimization of resources and the improvement of efficiency and quality.
References
Notes
This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation. In several cases the PubMed ID was missing and was added to make the reference more useful. Grammar and vocabulary were cleaned up to make the article easier to read.
