Business Process Reengineering in Emergency Departments (EDs): Evidence from Two Hospitals

Business process reengineering (BPR) supports the alignment of organizational processes with organizational goals while providing better services to customers. In the present study, the operations' processes, used by two emergency departments (EDs) of different Greek hospitals, are analyzed using simulation models. All the necessary data were collected adopting the observation method. More specifically, the start-finish time for each separate phase of the visit of each patient in the ED was recorded. All simulation models concerning patient flow were analyzed, so as to determine the most appropriate, according to the specific characteristics of each ED. The main objective of this applied research is to identify the main problematic areas within this process and then to provide specific suggestions that might improve the quality of healthcare services, in terms of waiting time and services provided. In each of the two cases (EDs), an alternative patient flow strategy was developed, aiming to increase efficiency without increasing cost. The improvements that were made with the use of the simulation models were noteworthy. The most significant improvement, for both EDs, is the reduction of patient waiting time.