What Is Workflow?
Workflow defined, is the set of responsibilities grouped
chronologically into processes and the set of resources or people needed for
those responsibilities, which are necessary to accomplish a given goal. An
institution's workflow is comprised of the set of processes it requires to
achieve, the set of people or other resources available to perform those
processes, and the interactions between them.
In health care system, as in other businesses, some
workflows are originated, while others arise naturally and evolve. The methods
and systems by which institutions achieve specific goals vary dramatically. It
is in the interaction between the processes that complexities occur. Some of
these interactions hide struggles in the priorities of diverse roles in an
institution, such as, what the nursing staff is responsible to versus the
physician staff and its schedule. Institutions also adapt workflows to support
the developing environment. Over time, reflecting on institutional workflows
may show that some processes are no longer necessary, or can be optimized and
updated.
Why workflow management necessary to Nurses?
Health care has frequently faced the pressure to design, or
redesign, its workflows to be more effective and efficient. In many cases, the
trigger for reviewing workflow is in response to alterations in how things are done.
Certain day, the require to think about workflow design is numerous pressing
due to many factors, containing:
1- The difficulty of coordinating care for the chronically ill.
2- The introduction of new technologies and treatment
methodologies into clinical care.
3-Cost and competence pressures to improve patient flow.
4-The participation of a growing array of professionals in a
patient’s care team, and new definitions of their roles
5-Implementation of reforms to make the care team more
patient-focused.
6-Initiatives to ensure patient safety.
The design of good institutional workflow is not easily
about developing efficiency. Workflow processes are maps that guide the health
care staff how to achieve a goal. A great workflow will attain those objects
promptly, driving to care that is delivered more reliably, safely, and
consistently in compliance with standards of practice. A great workflow process
can include differences that inevitably arise in health care through
communication with another workflow processes, as well as environmental factors
such as staff schedules, workload, and patient load.
Common Issue
Workflow problems usually appear in studies of technology.
One great -studied domain field is bar code medication administration (BCMA).10
BCMA is a technology that has been proved to enhance care quality by increasing
access to information, decreasing trust on memory, and improving compliance
with best practice.
More challenging interactions have also been observed. Due to many BCMA systems need that the doctor insert an order before the nurse can have access to the medicine, some nurses have, in critical conditions, “borrowed” medication from one patient on the ward to provide to another until the medicine for the second patient shows in the system. Consequently, the nurse cannot quickly document the administration of the order until the order has been inserted by the doctor. In some conditions, a shadow system of informal paper documentation supplements, duplicates, or confuses the documentation captured in an electronic system.
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