The missing link to success: using a business process management system to automate and manage process improvement

Healthcare continues to face many significant challenges in its quest to provide optimal patient care. Many hospitals have instituted various process improvement methodologies to address these challenges. The outcome of these efforts still produces a large volume of manual tasks that must be addressed by the caregiver. The Chester County Hospital employed a Business Process Management (BPM) engine to automate and manage several of these processes. A BPM engine can perform key tasks and interact with the clinician to decrease the manual requirements of a process. The result is reduced workloads and improved outcomes. The Chester County Hospital has been able to demonstrate significant decreases in hospital acquired MRSA infections and compliance with several CMS core measures. There are multiple items to evaluate before attempting to use a BPM engine. This paper reviews the work at Chester County, its outcomes and the considerations that were important for achieving success.