A Business Process Management Methodology for Care Process Monitoring

Abstract

Reporting patient states is considered an important part of care process monitoring in the hospital to efficiently monitor how well the health care system is performing. Monitoring care processes with enough fine-grained detail to precisely track wait states and service states in order to reduce wait times and improve their quality of care are challenging. Business Process Management (BPM) technology is used to bring care processes online, but there is no clear methodology on how to integrate performance management into BPM tools in a systematic matter that is effective, and minimizes complications and development costs. This thesis proposes a BPM methodology for care process monitoring that structures how to integrate performance monitoring into BPM. The major contribution of this thesis includes a generic methodology for care processes monitoring that describes how to structure and instrument a business process model for systematic care process monitoring which includes support for handoff points between organizations where many wait-time bottlenecks occur. It also includes a prototype implementation based on an existing case study based on a real cardiology care process from an Ontario hospital. Our results are evaluated using three different prototypes based on this same care process. The research methodology for the thesis is based on Design-Science research.