Business Process Change - Research Paper Example

?Business Process Change Q#5 Prepare two general process diagrams (see figure 9.2) for the Business Process Change you identified in question #2 in Unit 1. 5a. Diagram the current process steps taken by the organization for the process. 5b. Diagram any adaptations to the process steps after the change process is approved. Q#6 Evaluate and address the importance of the existing and future diagrams and how they assist the organization in determining the validity of the suggested change (your response to this question should be 3-5 paragraphs in length). A business can only realize the benefits of information technology if the selected technology fits the organization’s goals and strategies. In addition, appropriate technology should match the organization’s people and processes (Macmillan, 2007). Moreover, businesses can only achieve absolute benefits of technology if they consider application of technology as a source of business opportunities and not a source of expense for the business (Harigopal, 2006). Considering information technology as a solution allows businesses to explore the potentials of information technology. Currently Four Winds Hospital requires a business solution that will enable it combine and integrated business opportunities. When fully implemented, the system will enhance efficiency in the organization. This will be realized through improved ability to handle and process information. Currently the hospital faces difficulties involving processing of customers and operation information. When fully implemented, the company will increase its operations by more that 50%. This will result from enhanced ability to handle customers and increased operation related data. UNIT 3 ASSIGNMENT (Responses Should Run 3-5 Pages in Length) Q#7 Assess one specific activity to be performed within the process change. From the assessment, identify the task being evaluated. Where would that activity be performed within the organization? Who would perform the task and who would manage, measure, and evaluate task completion? Make sure you separate out the information requested (don’t place the information in a large block paragraph). Most health organizations face difficulties relating to prescription. The proposed system is expected to provide a solution to the problem through an automated prescription system. The organization need to have specific implementation procedures for the specific systems required in the organization. For the organization to be up to date with the modern technological development, it requires to eliminate paper work that relate to current systems and operations (Marion, & Joan, 2004). Although the organization might not achieve the required benefits from the system in the short-term, it stands to achieve long-term benefits following successful implementation (Burke, 2010). The benefits achieved by the organization from a successful implementation of the system will be part of organization’s return on investment. People form important components of an information system, people are not only important in the design of an information system but they also contribute in the implementation process. For the organization to implement the new information system successfully, it needs to consider the people required to run the new system. The organization will therefore consider the available staff before considering hiring new members of staff. If its existing staff can implement the new system successfully, then the organization needs not hire new staff. However if the available staff are not capable of implementing the system, the organization require additional staff members. The organization should therefore ensure that it has the required staff before setting on the implementation process. Although the organization will require staff members with variety of qualifications, the organization should consider a project manager as a significant member of staff. The hospital should therefore, begin by recruiting a project manager to advice the organization accordingly on matters concerning hiring of new staff. Secondly, the organization will require modifying its workflow and facilities. This part of the implementation process would require fine turning the existing duties and facilities with the new information system. The main reason necessitating the organization to undertake this process is to ensure that the existing facilities and procedures accommodate the new system fully and efficiently. To modify the workflow, the organization requires testing the capabilities of the new system on the procedures and duties performed by the organization. The implementation team will then decide how suitable the new system is in the performance of stated duties. From this process, the implementation team is capable of determining how the new system needs to be modified to fit the procedures and duties in the organization (Fieschi, & Lancon, 2010). The next part of the modification process is ensuring that the new system is compatible with the existing facilities. This will be achieved by ensuring that the newly acquired software is compatible with the available computers. The process will also ensure that the new system is friendly to available people and procedures. This process will involve testing, recommending and making adjustments on the new system. Q#8 Delineate and describe the differences between measuring human performance and task completion. Task completion is similar to completion of a particular task. A task can be described as an assignment assigned to a particular worker and, it is expected to be completed within a given period. Measuring or evaluation of tasks requires relevant standards that defines or evaluates the assigned task or responsibility (Luo, 2006). In this case, the standards are expected to measure the performance of a worker in relation to certain pre-set standards or expectations. The standards also indicate whether a certain task has been completed successfully or not. The nature of completion provides the relationship between human performance and completion of tasks. Although completion of tasks is directly related to human performance, human performance is superior. Precisely, human performance refers to the ability of transforming human resource into actions. In addition human performance also describes human ability to complete a certain task timely, successful and efficiently. Human abilities need to be measured in order to measure employee’s performance. Measuring employee’s performance enhances task completion and task performance ability. Therefore, human performance is the transformation of human resource into action while, measuring human performance involves measuring employee’s performance through their actions. Q#9 Explore Six Sigma as a method used to evaluate, measure, and encourage continuous improvement. From this exploration create a fishbone diagram that addresses one risk, a potential defect, or a problem that may result from the change which may impact goal attainment. Q#10 Address the value of your fishbone diagram as a visual representation The fishbone diagram addressed in problem Q#9 depicts the cause or actions and their respective effects. The diagram identifies a cause and analyzes its results or consequences to the furthest possible degree. The diagram depicts delays as the main constraint of the current management system. From the flow of the diagram, the cause of delays can be arranged in the order of influence or in the order of significance to the firm’s management system. This will enable the human management officials to determine the best actions. In addition, the fishbone diagram indicates whether the firm is suffering from mismanagement, understaffing, or requires absolute restructuring of its processes. The diagram also indicates areas of weakness within the current management system that can be addressed through the proposed EMR system. UNIT 4 ASSIGNMENT Q#11 Discover and describe at least 3 key performance indicators (KPI) for the suggested process change that must be continuously measured to ensure success. KPI#1 The current information system suffers from data insecurity. Thus measuring the frequency of missing information from claims presented by the customers provides a significant performance indicator for the proposed change. The performance indicator measures the number or times that a customer contacts the management for missing document or information. A sufficient performance indicator will also be required to measure efficiency and accuracy of the EMR. This assessment will also indicate whether the staff requires additional training or whether the hospital requires additional staff. This indicator also evaluates the compatibility of current people and procedures with the proposed information system. KPI#2 Positive feed back as a percentage of revenue. The KPI assess the value of unsatisfied customers as an expense to the organization. This relation indicates the quality of services offered by the hospital and any problem relating to customers complains. It is recommended that the management should record relevant data periodically in order to asses incoming complains and claims. This KPI will enable the management to make appropriate changes to the hospital’s services according to available cost constraints. KPI#3 Reduced paperwork and manual filing system The hospital should have a reduction in complaints resulting from inefficiency and inability to retrieve medical records. This will be indicated by increased customers service and high index of customer satisfactions. The evaluation will provide a benchmark for estimating the company’s performance in relation to the EMR (Kalb, 2005). In the course of monitoring, benchmarking will assist in exposing the poorly performing parts of the change and the better performing aspects of the change program. The development of benchmark will involve the generation of data on the specifics of record management and clinical processes that are targeted for change through the Electronic Medical Records program. Q#12 Conduct research (using the Kaplan Library or the Internet) to compare and contrast Six Sigma, the Balanced Scorecard, and ISO9000/9001 as different methods of preparing performance and completion metrics. Metrics are performance markers, utilized at different intervals during the process timeline, to measure adherence to schedule and attainment of goals. The Six Sigma is performance evaluation tool used to measure the success of a company in relation to the quality of its products. Six Sigma evaluates the performance through performance and completion metrics. Metrics are used to measure defects of a product and services in relation to customer’s criticism and expectations. In addition, metrics are used to determine the quality of a product in relation to its timeliness, ease of market sustainability and cost. In the Six Sigma evaluation process, data will be collected by monitoring the course of action and hospital’s operations and procedures. Actionable metrics are then developed from the collected data. In order to get necessary and reliable information, Four Winds Hospital management team will need to improve the metric. The metrics give a clear view of the source of problems that currently affects the hospital, which will then necessitate further improvements and analysis. A balanced metric resulting from sigma analysis is used as a strategic management tool. This tool will enable the hospital to reconcile its business activities with its mission and business objectives. This is a significant aspect in the health services industry since organizations often compromise their business objectives with their stretched roles and social responsibilities. In this case, a balanced score card will seek to improve internal and external communication of the hospital as a strategy of improving its performance. Improving external and internal communication of the hospital will enable the management team to measure the performance of the business in relation to its vision and objectives. This performance analysis method allows the performance of an organization to be evaluated from business process, customers, growth, and financial perspective. Most of the performance evaluation techniques analyze the performance of a business from a single dimension and hence they do not give a clear perspective of its performance. The multidimensional approach applied in six-sigma analysis enhances intact evaluation of the hospitals performance. Evaluation metrics are constructed from data collected from each of the six evaluation perspectives. A balanced score card containing the four analysis perspectives is used to create a strategy map. A strategy map determines the action that needs to be taken in relation the identified problems or weaknesses. In addition, a strategy map provides a clear perception on the four perspectives of business analysis as the most appropriate action. For instance, the business process perspective reflects the internal business environment in relation to the created metrics. This allows business manager to measure the compliance of their products and services in relation to customer’s requirements. Business operations are based on the mission of a given organization and therefore should be designed in a manner that they reflect the mission and core values of the business organization under perspective. Metrics evaluate the four perspectives of a business; some of them assess risks, and evaluate cost benefit data while others are customer satisfaction metrics. Lastly, ISO 9000/9001 is an international standard that certify a company’s compliance with Quality Management Systems (QMS) (Ogus, 2007). Successful compliance with the standard indicates that the products and services of a particular company meet customer’s specifications and requirements. In addition, successful compliance indicates that the products comply with appropriate convention. ISO 9000/9001 is a quality initiative that relies on quality management standard to enhance quality performance through process approach principles. Process performance metrics enhances numerical measurement of organization’s performance by evaluating their performance at each task (Sharfstein, Dickerson, & Oldham, 2009). Finally, ISO 9000/9001 serves as an identification factor for planned actions and objectives. In addition, the process approach exceeds barriers between functional units within an organization. Q#13 Recommend one of the three methods evaluated in question #12 as the best one for your change process. Be sure to thoroughly support and defend your recommendation. I consider the Six Sigma methodology as the most appropriate methods for change processes and for determining the KPI values. The six-sigma method provides effective parameters for measuring timeliness, ease and accuracy of doing business. This enhances successful implementation of the proposed EMR according to available people, processes and infrastructures. UNIT 5 ASSIGNMENT (With Diagram Responses Should Run 2-3 Pages) Q#14- Produce an outline or a flowchart describing the entire change management plan Q#15- Provide a complete summary of the entire plan (units 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5). Response to this question should run between ? and 1 1/2 page in length. Four winds hospital is a health organization that deals with mental illness. Although most businesses in the health sector have stretched social responsibilities, balancing their business and social responsibilities is a significant aspect of their sustainability (Grembergen, 2001). The proposed EMR system will enable the hospital to achieve its goals and objectives. The hospital aims to achieve efficiency, customer satisfaction and accuracy in its operations. The current environmental factors that the business needs to consider include changing trends in business operations and application of technology in business processes. The Six Sigma methodology is essential in analyzing its business processes in order to determine the causes of inefficiency and lack of customer’s satisfaction. This analysis will require collaboration of the customer service department and the hospital’s management. Human performance and task completion will be essential parameters in the analysis process. Indicators of human performance and task completion will be assessed using the KPI’s. The proposed EMR system will be essential in the analysis process. The process will require approval by key stakeholders, which includes customers, hospital management, government, public, donors and other non-governmental organization. This approval will be based on the system’s compliance with ISO 9000/9001 standards. References Burke, W. (2010). Organization Change: Theory and Practice. London: SAGE. Fieschi, M., & Lancon, C. (2010). Implementing Electronic Medical Records in a Psychiatric Hospital: A Qualitative Study. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 14(3), 223-227. Harigopal, K. (2006). Management of Organizational Change: Leveraging Transformation. London: SAGE. Grembergen, W. (2001). Information Technology Evaluation Methods and Management. New York: Idea Group Inc (IGI). Kalb, I. (2005). Structuring your business for success. New York: K & A press. Luo, J. (2006). Electronic Medical Records. Primary Psychiatry AVol 13 (2). P.20-23. Macmillan, T. (2007). Strategic Management. London: Oxford University Press. Marion, C., & Joan, K. (2004). Healthcare Information Management Systems: Cases, Strategies, and Solutions. New York: Springer-Verlag. Ogus, A. (2007). Regulation: Legal Form and Economic Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press Sharfstein, S., Dickerson, F., & Oldham, J. (2009). Textbook of Hospital Psychiatry. New York: America Psychiatric Pub. P. 470-472. Read More