A Multimethodology For Hospital Process Redesign

Hospitals are complex organizations, faced with major challenges. They are required to reach higher cost efficiency, while improving treatment quality and achieving patient-focused care. Yet, hospitals are still fragmented organizations, which prevents them from reaching these targets. In this article, we propose a multimethodology to achieve coordination and integration between different hospital departments involved in the same care process. Our proposition combines Soft Systems Methodology, Discrete Event Simulation, benchmarking and Service Blueprinting. It offers both qualitative and quantitative aspects, and takes into account both the logical/technical and the social/political dimensions of interventions and change management in organizations. The multimethodology is evaluated on a project in outpatient chemotherapy delivery within a partner hospital. Solutions are generated and refined for the problem of patient waiting times. The study makes a methodological contribution, by proposing this multimethodology. It also offers a practical solution concept for outpatient chemotherapy planning.