An Evaluation of Various Business Process Modelling Techniques Applied to Healthcare

摘要

Healthcare systems are complex because of their multi-dimensional nature where different processes using different resources in different departments combine and interact to deliver a service. Understanding the pathway by which a particular service is delivered in such an environment is a challenge. Researchers and practitioners have resorted to modelling as a first step toward understanding the pathways and several business process modelling (BPM) methodologies have been developed over the last few decades. These visual methods of representing process dynamics serve as a starting point for analysis and play an important role in the communication between stakeholders. In this paper, we evaluate the ability of the visual notations of six well known BPM methodologies to accurately represent a medication ordering and preparation process observed at several hospitals. The resulting six models are compared to each other and to a model generated by medBPM, a methodology which has been specifically designed for the healthcare domain. It is shown that the medBPM model is able to capture the majority of the elements of interest of the process in a straightforward fashion. The model and its notation are easy enough for clinicians to understand yet can accurately represent even the most complex healthcare process.