Business process management as a key factor for ehealth success

There is great interest worldwide in optimizing processes in healthcare, particularly in hospitals. In these days, managers are using modern methods of business process management (BPM) and looking after trends in other fields like industry, service, and government. They try to implement new methods and technologies to reach the vision that we called eHealth. Implementation of eHealth in the healthcare system in the Czech Republic entails a number of opportunities. One of the most notable is improvements in the usage of currently used management systems. The most commonly applied systems are the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 and local SAK (associated accreditation commission). Hospitals are well acquainted with these systems; therefore, we propose their use as an aid in introducing up-to-date environment changes.

The trend is to ensure that managers and hospital staff are familiarized with eHealth and all trends connected with eHealth. This paper examines that trend using our own 2015 qualitative research in Czech hospitals. Qualitative interviews with management, process engineers and information technology specialists were conducted at 26 hospitals in the Czech Republic. The interviews were supported by a survey, in which we asked for general information as well as questions related to process management.  

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that methods and procedures such as BPM or eHealth can be effectively used in Czech hospitals and in their processes, to define a core group of processes that are involved in organizational transformation, and set up a method to implement eHealth as a group of processes.  These "eHealth processes" are mandatory to drive and manage the change in healthcare systems. The owners of these processes are working within new approaches and technologies already in place. We find that owners are ready and able to effectively manage and evaluate the processes with the aim of a successful eHealth transformation. Owners should be able to proceed with the intensive and perfect information support that is also one of the guiding principles of eHealth.