Managing processes of inpatient care and treatment : Swedish healthcare process managers’ descriptions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish a knowledge bank for the development of overall hospital processes. Description and analysis are used to show how process managers experience their situation and the various possibilities it offers for active management in the context of managing processes of inpatient care and treatment at Swedish hospitals. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative and explorative design with open-ended interviews with 12 process managers at three Swedish hospitals was used. Transcribed interviews were analysed by means of latent content analysis. Findings – The two main categories emerging from the analysis were characteristics of process leadership and prerequisites of process management. Quality, relational and knowledge dimensions, and structure, time and information dimensions emerged as their respective sub-categories. The overall theme describes the interdependence between leadership characteristics and the prerequisites necessary for effective process management. Research limitations/implications – No generalizations could be made from the results of the qualitative interview studies but a deeper understanding of the phenomenon was reached, which in turn can be transferred to similar settings. Originality/value – This study contributes qualitative descriptions of leadership characteristics and the prerequisites necessary for active process management in the context of managing processes of inpatient care and treatment at Swedish hospitals, a subject that has not been investigated earlier.