Using the Delphi Method to Identify Hospital-Specific Business Process Management Capabilities in The Netherlands

Business Process Management (BPM) is an important discipline for organisations that are desiring quality improvement. Many models for assessing, comparing and improving the maturity of organisational BPM are found in literature. An effective BPM Maturity Model should contain a validated set of capability areas specific to the application domain. We attempt to fill a gap by providing a model specific to the hospital industry. This paper presents the first phase in the development of such a model. For this we use the Delphi Method, a multi-round technique for collecting rich data and gaining consensus among a panel of experts. Based on the opinions provided by experts in hospitals and academia in The Netherlands, we identify relevant and domain-specific capabilities for improving BPM maturity in the Dutch hospital industry. Hospitals are characterised by complex, multidisciplinary processes. Our findings reflect that capabilities related to people and organisational culture are most important for achieving BPM maturity

A MATURITY MODEL FOR CARE PATHWAYS

Over the last recent decades, increasing the quality of healthcare services while reducing costs has been among the top concerns in the healthcare landscape. Several healthcare institutions have initiated improvement programs and invested considerably in process orientation and management. Care pathways are receiving increasing attention from clinicians, healthcare managers, and academics, as a way to standardize healthcare processes to improve the safety, quality, and efficiency of healthcare services. Despite considerable literature on the definition of care pathways, to date there is no agreement on their key process characteristics and the way they traverse from an immature to a mature state. Such a model would guide healthcare institutions to assess pathways’ level of maturity and generate a roadmap for improving towards higher levels. In this paper, we propose a maturity model for care pathways that is constructed taking a generic business process maturity model as a basis. The model was refined through a Delphi study with nine domain experts to address healthcare domain specific concerns. To evaluate its validity, we applied it in assessing the maturity of a particular care pathway taking place in 11 healthcare institutions. The results indicate the usefulness of the proposed model in assessing pathway’s maturity and its potential to provide guidance for its improvement

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Towards a better understanding of the e-health user: comparing USE IT and Requirements study for an Electronic Patient Record.

This paper compares a traditional requirements study with 22 interviews for the design of an electronic patient record (EPR) and a USE IT analysis with 17 interviews trying to understand the end- user of an EPR. Developing, implementing and using information technology in organizations is a complex social activity. It is often characterized by ill-defined problems or vague goals, conflicts and disruptions that result from organizational change. Successfully implementing information systems in healthcare organizations appears to be a difficult task. Information Technology is regarded as an enabler of change in healthcare organizations but (information) technology adoption decisions in healthcare are complex, because of the uncertainty of benefits and the rate of change of technology. (Job) Relevance is recognized as an important determinant for IS success but still does not find its way into a systems design process

The development, validity and applicability to practice of pharmacy-related competency frameworks: A systematic review

Background: Global reforms in the education of health workers has culminated in the implementation of competency-based education and training (CBET). In line with the CBET model, competency frameworks are now commonplace in the health professions. In pharmacy, these frameworks are used to regulate career entry, benchmark standards of practice and facilitate expertise development. / Objective: This systematic review assessed the development, validity and applicability to practice of pharmacy-related competency frameworks. / Method: PubMed/Medline, CINAHL, Embase, ERIC, Scopus and PsycINFO electronic databases were searched to identify relevant literature. Additional searching included Google Scholar, electronic sources of grey literature, and the Member Organisation websites of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). The findings of this review were synthesised and reported narratively. The review protocol is registered on PROSPERO with reference number CRD42018096580. / Results: In total, 53 pharmacy-related frameworks were identified. The majority (n=39, 74%) were from high income countries in Europe and the Western Pacific region, with only three each from countries in South East Asia (SEA) and Africa. The identified frameworks were developed through a variety of methods that included expert group consultation used alone, or in combination with a literature review, job/role evaluation, or needs assessment. Profession wide surveys and consensus via a nominal group, Delphi, or modified Delphi technique were the primary methods used in framework validation. The competencies in the respective frameworks were generally ranked relevant to practice, thereby confirming validity and applicability. However, variations in competency-related terminologies and descriptors were observed. Disparities on perception of relevance also existed in relation to area of practice, length of experience, and level of competence. For example, pharmaceutical care competencies were typically ranked high in relevance in the frameworks, compared to others such as the research-related competencies. / Conclusion: The validity and applicability to practice of pharmacy-related frameworks highlights their importance in competency-based education and training (CBET). However, the observed disparities in framework terminologies and development methods suggest the need for harmonisation

Biotech Innovation in Europe's Food and Drink Processing Industry: Promise, Barriers and Exploitation

Early optimism about the potential of biotechnology to contribute to "the production of food with improved quality and nutritional content" (ACOST, 1990) has waned in the face of consumer resistance to the use of genetically modified organisms in food. The European food and drink sector has not abandoned biotechnology, however, but it is being very selective in its use. Some of the current applications of biotechnology were not recognized in early predictions about the application of biotechnology to the food and drink sector.

Profitability in a social business: an environmental analysis of the social sector in Portugal

As it is described by Henderson, the concept of strategy can be traced back to ancient times with the central idea being: to gain advantage over someone or something (Henderson, 1989). In order to build a successful strategy for any type of business, a strategic analysis needs to be performed. A strategic analysis exists of multiple elements, but it always starts with environmental scanning. This research focuses on that very first step by conducting an environmental analysis. It is a strategic tool that identifies all the external and internal elements, which could possibly affect the organization's performance. The analysis entails assessing the level of threat or opportunity that factors might present. To achieve this, a SWOT analysis was conducted in combination with other tools, such as PESTEL, Porter´s five forces and the Power-interest matrix. These tools were analysed by using the gathered research data. The data collection was divided into two parts: a desk research, where close attention was paid to literature review and a field research, where experts were interviewed. Both focused on analysing the Portuguese social sector. To structure this data collection five categories were determined: The benchmark between Portugal and the Netherlands; The financial mechanism; The Portuguese social care system; The target group and the critical success factors. The aim of this research was not to provide all the final and conclusive answers, it was merely to explore the research topic with varying levels of depth. Additionally, this research tended to tackle new problems on which little or no previous research has been done by combining and elaborating well known models, such as PESTEL, Porter´s 5 forces and SWOT. The research problem of this dissertation can be described as followed: to determine the possibilities of starting a successful commercial business within the social welfare sector of Portugal