Process models as templates for healthcare standardization and management

The increasing focus on increased quality and efficiency presents a paradox with which the healthcare enterprise must cope. Information technologies provide opportunities for improved quality and efficiency, standardization, management and distributed application of healthcare services, but the proper insertion of these technologies presents a new set of problems. The computerized medical record has been proposed as a vehicle for standardization and management of the healthcare enterprise. It is the view of the authors that a process modeling formalism could provide a suitable framework for such a medical record and, in addition, enable communications and possibly re-use of healthcare processes among healthcare facilities. Process modeling and the requirements for a standard process representation formalism are discussed. The ways in which such a formalism can be used as a template for standardization and management are discussed. The results of ongoing research activities to develop and refine an appropriate formalism are also presented.