A method for diagnosing healthcare provision process based on failure cases

Purpose The purpose of this study is to systematize the analytic viewpoints, establish the diagnosis procedure and develop the needed tool. To conduct proper work process diagnosis based on failure cases, the necessary analytic viewpoints must be sufficiently systematized for hospital medical staff unfamiliar with the above analysis models to utilize them relatively quickly. Finally, the authors confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method by applying it in Hospital A. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors identify the necessary conditions of the ideal process model that can provide high-quality healthcare services by examining them from the viewpoint of process structure, contents and operational management style. After establishing the general diagnosis procedure based on the failure cases, the analytic viewpoint used in each step of the diagnosis is specified and shaped into one analytic template. Findings The authors proposed a method for diagnosing the healthcare provision process based on failure cases and applied it in several real cases in Hospital A. As a result, the authors can confirm that the proposed diagnosis method leads medical staffs to review their own healthcare provision process systematically, to find the key factors of the failure case effectively and to devise various types of countermeasures compared with the previous studies. Originality/value The perspectives for the process diagnosis in this study were systematized based on what kind of components the higher-performance work process should have. Therefore, the proposed method allows medical staff to find existing problems in the targeted process more appropriately. Secondly, this study proposed not only the perspectives for process diagnosis but also the analytic template that details the order in which each perspective should be utilized by a medical staff. This means that it is useful for a medical staff who is not familiar with process to select and utilize the proper perspectives when analyzing a failure case.