Events & Information
Workflow Automation Workshop at TEPR 2003
Sunday, May 11, 2003
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
San Antonio, TX
Tunitas Group will describe how workflow automation can increase the efficiency and productivity of typical healthcare
clinical and administrative processes. Workshop topics include: a workflow primer, workflow automation components,
architectural considerations, user requirements, and application integration. We will present our survey of current
workflow platforms, and will provide a strategy for implementation.
To register
Other Reference Sites
Business Process Management International -- non-profit organization promoting the standardization of business processes conducted
over the Internet
Workflow Management Coalition --
non-profit organization promoting the use of workflow through the establishment of standards promoting interoperability
between different workflow systems
SRI --
provides a basic technical introduction to workflow management systems
Van der Aalst -- technical
website with various resource articles describing the use of Petri Nets
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Workflow Automation
Introduction
Workflow technology has been around since 1980's. It first saw adoption in the insurance industry where it provided
a solution to their paper burden. Some of the earliest implementations involved imaging in support of basic business
processes. Workflow technology has since seen mainstream adoption in many other industries. Healthcare has however
lagged behind in that regard. Recently however there has been an increasing awareness that workflow technologies
can benefit many areas in healthcare.
What is workflow?
Workflow simply refers to the tasks, resources and triggers associated with a specific process. Workflow technology
is concerned with the automation of these processes. These workflow technologies are able to co-ordinate and monitor
the activities associated with well-defined processes. It does this by having a workflow engine that implements
the business rules associated with the process.
Workflow Management Systems provide an environment to automate and assist in the management of tasks and the flow
of work-items from one task to another. They encompass a number of functions like authorization, authentication,
scheduling, monitoring, event processing, queues, prioritization, escalation, load balancing, task termination
and auditing.
In healthcare today we are faced with the problem of departmental applications that support specific functions
and limited workflow. Most of the data captured by these systems reside within the application and is not easily
retrieved and made available to other processes that may require this data. Delivering healthcare today is a complex
business. Patients are generally older, tend to have more complex medical problems and often have multidisciplinary
care teams, which span numerous departments. The organizations themselves have complex infrastructures with little
communication between the different departments. As organizations attempt to drive operational efficiencies they
come to realize that in order to do so they require a means to automate these very processes that cross-departmental
and process boundaries. They also require a means to manage these processes so that the right information is made
available to the right individual at the right time. Workflow management systems can support such care processes
by executing agreed models of care.
Clinical Workflow Automation
Certainly not all processes lend themselves equally well to automation. The kind of processes that best benefit
from this technology are those which are characterized by a number of steps which may occur in parallel or in sequence,
require hand-offs at various points, require task communication and alerting mechanisms and have the requirement
that a defined process be followed.
Healthcare processes, upon scrutiny, contain all the elements that would benefit from such technologies. Most processes
in the clinical area are complex and have numerous hand-offs. Today generally there are poor task communication
mechanisms, which often results in errors and/or costly delays. Systems may not have appropriate alerting mechanisms
ensuring timely responses. In addition, one of the most problematic aspects in current practice is the fragmentation
of processes and consequently information when delivering care.
At its most basic level Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) systems refer to a variety of computer-based
systems of ordering medications, which share the common features of automating the medication ordering process.
In order to bring value there are three key issues. Firstly user adoption; to achieve this CPOE systems need to
be incorporated into current clinician workflow. Secondly the systems must have the capability to orchestrate a
multidisciplinary collaboration of processes. Thirdly the CPOE system should have decision support capabilities.
Therefore a CPOE project is not simply an effort in installing software but rather should be viewed as a way to
automate and if necessary re-engineer aspects of the clinical process.
HIPAA Transactions and Workflow Automation
There is enormous effort and expenditure at the moment to meet the upcoming HIPAA Transactions and Code Sets
compliance dates. While adopting standard transactions and code sets will address compliance requirements it is
unlikely that in itself, it will justify the expenditure. In order to achieve the operational efficiencies and
improvement in reimbursement, it is necessary to automate the reimbursement related workflow. In so doing one can
improve the reliability of the reimbursement process and optimize the opportunity to shorten reimbursement cycles.
This presents a different context for workflow, that which may occur outside the boundaries of a given organization.
Today the reimbursement process is an ad hoc process part electronic, part manual. Workflow systems can support
such processes, by following an agreed process and providing reminders, alerts and exception handling in real time
Benefits of Workflow Automation
The benefits of workflow automation include cost reduction, improved operational efficiencies, clinical error
reduction, improved patient care, better communication and collaboration and real time audit of processes
The benefits of workflow automation cannot be realized by simply purchasing software. Firstly business requirements
should drive business process improvement and automation initiatives. Secondly, if technology is applied to inefficient
manual processes it will retain its inefficiencies when automated. Thirdly the automated workflow should streamline
or augment the current process
Tunitas Group Services
Tunitas Group offers expertise in the following areas:
" Evaluation of current business processes
" Process re-design and/or re-engineering
" System selection
" Integration strategies
" Project management
For more information, contact Prashila Dullabh, M.D.
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