Process Improvement Plan

Process Improvement Plan – Practical Steps and Examples

Successes in health systems rarely come by accident. There is usually a process improvement plan behind success story in healthcare. Process improvement is the act of improving the entire service process rather than tackling individual problems. Process Improvement Plan

However, improving a healthcare process is not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes, managers introduce valuable ideas to improve processes, but employees still end up using old methods. Hence, no matter how valuable an idea is, it needs to be backed up with a concrete process improvement plan.

On the other hand, health facilities are constantly affected by external and internal changes. New competitors enter the market. Technology and customer demands keep changing. As a result, facilities must always look for ways to improve their processes. While doing this, they have to find the best ways to deliver quality products and services at a reasonable cost. A plan can help them adjust their processes to give the best result.

Furthermore, the process improvement plan can improve the efficiency and quality of services. They will be able to identify key areas for improvement and reduce inefficiencies in their processes. The plan can help hospitals and other health facilities reduce process completion time and meet regulatory or organisational policy compliance.

Hence, it is essential that health facilities understand what a process improvement plan is all about.

However, this article focuses on these key areas:

  • Process improvement plan steps.
  • Process improvement plan examples.
  • Process improvement plan in healthcare.

Process Improvement Plan

Almost every aspect of a hospital service delivery involves some kind of process. Some may be simple, while others may be complex. A process is a series of actions, steps and decisions carried out to complete a specific task. However, processes vary from one health facility to another. In addition, service delivery processes vary according to their importance. Some processes are mundane, while others constitute a vital part of the facility.

In smaller organisations, a single individual may be responsible for process improvement. However, larger organisations obviously have more technical and complex processes and are often managed by different units. These units, also called departments, are managed by supervisors.

Therefore, organisational process improvement is a project that is initiated to improve the performance of a process. Nevertheless, a process improvement must be in line with the organisational strategy and client expectations. All improvement efforts must align with these two factors to be effective.

Furthermore, process improvement involves identifying, analysing, designing and improving existing service. It is performed to eliminate inefficiencies in service delivery.

Application of process improvement plan

A process improvement plan is a documented strategy for optimizing processes. It is a proactive problem-solving approach that seeks to improve bottlenecks that exist in service processes. Usually, a plan contains certain vital information. Some examples are the process under review for improvement and how the process is being evaluated. Other items contained in the plan are the resources needed to make improvements, members of the project team and how improvements are executed.

The process improvement plan is executed by a project team. The team identifies the process that needs to be reviewed and make recommendations. The most difficult part of applying process improvements is encouraging cooperation rather than competition among workers. However, management and leaders play a vital role in showing other employees how to adapt to process changes.

More so, your plan is a continuous process of change. Every person within the health facility plays a role in maintaining improvements. In order for a plan to be effective, management and employees must be eager to identify weaknesses and implement solutions.

Steps for Process Improvement Plan

Health facilities should not approach quality with a laid-back mentality To ensure that process improvements are effective, they need a process improvement plan. However, there are a number of planning steps that organisations need to follow. By following these steps, they boost the implementation process and their chances of achieving the desired result.

1.      Selecting a process

First of all, select a process that requires improvement. Then, constitute a project team that will be in charge of implementing improvements. The first assignment of the team is to visually map out all the steps in the process under review. This will help them understand how the activities in the process are carried out.

2.      Analysing the process

The next process improvement step is analysing the process. The team analyses every step of the process and identifies the weak points in the process. They take note of bottlenecks like delays, wastes and errors. Furthermore, the team ascertains the root cause of each of the problems identified to understand how to fix them. They can employ six sigma tools like 5Why and root cause analysis.

3.      Redesigning the process

After the team has determined the root cause of the problem, they go on to redesign the process. This process improvement plan step involves eliminating the problems that have been identified. The team compares all relevant data collected against the process improvement goals. At this stage, the team brainstorms to come up with solutions and recommendations. After brainstorming, they critically examine each solution to ascertain if it is the best for the process.

4.      Assigning resources

The next process improvement plan step is assigning resources. The team considers talking to other people that may be vital in implementing improvements. For example, managers or employees from other departments that are not part of the team. Once the team has decided who to involve, they should inform these people about their roles.

With roles and responsibilities assigned, the team creates a plan. The plan should be very detailed, taking into consideration the problems identified and solutions suggested. In addition, the plan should have a specified timeline. A detailed plan ensures that the team executes their plans to the end.

At this point, the plan is ready to be implemented. However, prior to implementation, every member of the project team should know their roles and responsibilities. Hence, there should be an effective communication flow amongst team members. The team follows the plan as a guide to executing improvements in the process.

5.      Monitoring and refining

Nevertheless, the process improvement plan is incomplete without monitoring and optimizing. Process improvement is not a one-off exercise, but a continuous improvement effort. After the team has made necessary improvements, they need to put measures in place to make sure that employees are adopting new standards of work. On the other hand, if employees encounter any problem as a result of the new changes, the team makes necessary adjustments. Continuous improvements and adjustments help to solidify changes that have already been made.

Examples of Process Improvement Plan

A service process is a flow of activities performed by a group of people within an organization, with the aim of reaching certain goals. Health facilities often try to make their processes efficient. However, to achieve profitability, they must have effective processes.

The purpose of improvements should be to make a process effective rather than efficient. This is because the fact that a process is efficient does not mean that it is effective. Thus, a highly efficient process may not be effective. Various process improvement plan examples exist to buttress this point. Nevertheless, for the purpose of this article, we will be citing three examples.

A data centre example…

The first process improvement example involves a data centre that was running into power limits. This constraint prevented the organisation from selling more services. Hence, they set a process improvement plan to measure power usage at the machine level.

By so doing, the data centre was able to investigate their power consumption on a monthly basis. Every month, they identified power usage defects that could be corrected. For example, a customer was violating their terms of service by mining cryptocurrency and consuming high units of power.

A banking call centre example…

The second example is about a banking call centre that handles different types of requests. Their requests ranged from product applications, transaction enquiries, market trades to general enquiries. Thus, the tasks were quite time-consuming, especially for new employees.

The bank implemented a process improvement plan to improve productivity. They had their agents specialize in a particular type of request. As a result, the call centre was able to increase their employee’s productivity and boost customer satisfaction.

A government agency example…

The final example involves a government agency that issued passports in 8 weeks. 6 weeks, out of the 8 weeks, was taken up by a security procedure. This procedure was very resource-intensive. In addition, the department handling the procedure seemed to take all its time. Hence, the agency performed a process improvement plan to eliminate this bottleneck.

The security procedure was removed for straightforward passport renewals. By so doing, the workload reduced for the department. As such, the security process time reduced from 6 weeks to 2 weeks. Consequently, the agency was able to issue passports in 2-4 weeks.

Process Improvement Plan in Healthcare

Although every organisation seeks to improve its processes, in healthcare, it is a different ball game altogether. The primary focus of healthcare is improving patient safety and satisfaction.

The conventional belief that people need healthcare and will continue to use the same health service irrespective of their processes is changing drastically. In this time and age, patients can make more informed decisions based on their experience and level of satisfaction. In addition, patients will pick quality over necessity any day, anytime.

Efficiency and safety in healthcare are important factors for quality patient experience. However, they are often crippled by medical errors and defects. As such, a process improvement plan in healthcare will help reduce inefficiencies to the barest minimum.

Furthermore, inefficiencies in healthcare include long patient waiting times, idle high-tech equipment and long waiting lists. Some other examples include misdiagnosis, medical errors, process failures and injurious treatments. Besides, healthcare-acquired conditions like infections, preventable allergic reactions and incomplete medical records also cause inefficiencies. A solid process improvement plan in healthcare will help minimize these errors.

More benefits of process improvement plan in healthcare

Process improvement plan in healthcare will help health service providers identify repetitive and less valuable processes. This will help them to save time, reduce costs and eliminate wastes. In addition, healthcare providers will be able to cross-check all processes to identify where over-process occurs. Over-process happens when there is unnecessary work in the process of delivering patient care. For example, when a patient has to fill out different forms with almost similar information. Another example is when employees perform data entry in more than one system.

Similarly, a plan helps healthcare providers increase employee enthusiasm and commitment. Health service providers will understand how inefficiencies in their processes can result in idle employee potentials. When employees are idle, they are unable to use their creativity to work, promote quality patient care and build relationships. Also, idleness reduces the time employees could have used to implement improvements.

Generally, a process plan in healthcare will help health providers deliver effective and efficient patient care. Consequently, implementing process improvements will reduce mortality rates. In addition, healthcare will be safer, faster and more coordinated. As such, a plan in healthcare will help to meet and even exceed patients’ expectations.

Summary

In summary, process improvements involve identifying, analysing, designing and improving service processes. Continuous process improvement is essential for any organisation. It helps increase productivity and minimize inefficiencies. In addition, process improvements help to point out bottlenecks in the process.

On the other hand, a process improvement plan is a documented strategy for making processes effective. Although every organisation has processes, these processes differ from organisation to organisation. However, in order to drive quality, certain process improvement steps must be followed.

Furthermore, a plan is applicable to any type of organisation. It is beneficial to all types of organisation in the healthcare system. Hence, an improvement plan in all sectors exists to buttress its importance.

Nevertheless, the primary goal of process improvement plan in healthcare is to improve patient safety and satisfaction. Like other industries, healthcare service providers also experience bottlenecks in their processes. These bottlenecks range from long patient waiting times to redundant staff. As such, a successful improvement plan helps health service providers achieve their goal of quality patient care.

Conclusion

Health organisations cannot succeed without an effective process improvement plan in place. For an organisation to be successful, the improvement plan is a never-ending journey. Nevertheless, it requires consistency and commitment to yield positive results.

For more about quality improvement methods, feel free to explore the following articles:

Six Sigma in Healthcare: Concept, Benefits and Examples

Lean in Healthcare – History, Tools & Examples

Total Quality Management Principles, Concept and Importance

FMEA In Six Sigma: RPN, Tools and FMEA Examples

Kaizen Event – Types, Examples, Agenda and Checklist

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