Business process management in healthcare: features, examples & platforms
October 24, 2023
- Home
- Business process management
- Healthcare
by Sergey Ivanov,
Head of Healthcare Center of Excellence
Business process management (BPM) in healthcare encompasses methods and technologies aimed at analyzing, optimizing, harmonizing, and automating clinical workflows through holistic re-engineering of healthcare processes.
Our experts help healthcare organizations adopt business process management solutions tailored to their specific requirements and infrastructure, enabling them to streamline workflows, scale their business, and enhance patient care by increasing organizations’ productivity.
BPM software market overview
Healthcare organizations have been among the most active BPM adopters over the recent years.
by application, 2022
Scheme title: Global BPM market share
Data source: grandviewresearch.com — Business Process Management Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report, 2023-2030
$8.8 bn
BPM market value as of 2020
- Statista
$26.18 bn
estimated size of the BPM market in 2028
- Fortune Business Insights
16.17%
projected BPM market CAGR from 2023 to 2032
- Precedence Research
Looking to improve your healthcare management processes?
Main features of BPM software for healthcare
Healthcare business process management software consists of multiple elements that allow healthcare providers to rework, automate, and enhance their processes, get more valuable insights from available healthcare data, and facilitate communication between various management systems from different departments.
BPM solution
Process modeling
create visual representations of your clinical and business processes by outlining workflows and defining activities, decision points, and dependencies to provide a comprehensive overview of how your healthcare organization operates.
Process automation
automate manual and repetitive tasks like form filling or order pre-processing, reducing human error, increasing efficiency, and allowing clinical personnel to focus on care-specific activities.
Workflow management
design, manage, and optimize workflows, assigning tasks to the right specialists or departments, enforcing deadlines, and tracking progress and resource usage.
Compliance and rule enforcing
define and enforce specialty-specific rules and policies, ensuring consistency, compliance, and standardized decision-making across processes and systems in different departments.
Operations management
streamline safe data exchange between systems and facilitate collaboration by managing workflows that involve multiple teams of professionals.
Documentation management
ensure cohesive documentation formats throughout the organization, eliminate duplicates, and maintain all documentation in order and easily available for authorized people.
Analytics and reporting
track and analyze your departments’ performance, identify bottlenecks, and generate comprehensive reports, fostering data-based decision-making.
Process monitoring and optimization
track processes, automatically identify bottlenecks, and receive alerts when specific conditions are not met. Model and test process scenarios, identify points for improvements, and implement better workflows.
Top BPM use cases in healthcare
Healthcare services go beyond the work of clinicians and nurses. Many other staff members ensure a smooth running of hospitals and clinics by dealing with significant amounts of paperwork on a daily basis. Business process management systems help holistically optimize all kinds of processes within the organization.
BPM solution application areas
Clinical processes
- Care coordination between departments and specialists
- EHR management
- Treatment planning and monitoring
- Admission and discharge forms management
- Notifications about test results
Administrative tasks
- Patient journey mapping
- Appointment scheduling
- Supply and medication tracking and ordering
- Measuring departments’ productivity
- Administrative coordination between departments
Regulatory compliance
- Provider’s credentialing and onboarding processes automation
- License tracking and updating
- Quality control
- Rapid resolution of events with possible legal implications
Financial processes
- Employee expenses and bonuses tracking
- Salary payment procedures
- Compiling tax documentation and other accounting tasks
- Ensuring due payment to suppliers
Example of a BPM-enabled appointment scheduling
Streamlining patient scheduling with an integrated online booking system that can also send pre-appointment reminders and flag any applications in case of missing data is a prime example of how a successfully implemented BPM solution can simplify processes and save time in a large healthcare organization.
Scheme title: Example of an appointment scheduling process simplified via BPM
Data source: researchgate.net — Complexity Analysis of a Business Process Automation: Case Study on a Healthcare Organization
Our BPM services for healthcare
Our experienced team provides end-to-end BPM implementation services, supporting all types of healthcare organizations in their workflow transformation. With our clients’ IT infrastructure, business requirements, and budget in mind, we help to build an effective BPM strategy, choose and implement optimal BPM software, and optimize its performance.
Consulting
Our experts analyze your business workflows and healthcare processes, operational efficiency, and current bottlenecks to help you select the best BPM solution to improve process performance, increase your operations’ cost-effectiveness, and lower possible risks.
PoC delivery
Our team can provide a PoC with core features for healthcare professionals to demonstrate how different BPM software would affect their processes and which can cover most of their business needs with minimal investment.
Implementation
We take on the full BPM software implementation cycle, including business process mapping, process modeling, software development or customization, integration, and regulatory compliance.
Customization
We redesign and tailor out-of-the-box solutions to satisfy your unique business requirements, ensure they fit flawlessly into your IT environment, and comply with necessary healthcare sector regulations.
Not sure which BPM platform to choose?
Client spotlight
Top BPM platforms we use in healthcare
Odoo
Being an Odoo Silver partner, Itransition helps healthcare providers leverage their Odoo BPM system to support specific healthcare business functions, such as accounting, patient relationships, human resources, or document management.
Key advantages
- Highly flexible modular structure offers users full control over capabilities
- User-friendly interface
- A variety of add-ons and extensions developed by the community
Limitations
- The free version has limited capabilities
- Customization requires technical expertise and additional costs
- Possible processing difficulties with large datasets
Integrations
- Easily integrated with Salesforce, Magento, and Microsoft software
- Provides API for custom integrations and data sync
Cost
- Free community edition
- Odoo online from $12.8/user/month
- Odoo custom from $19.2/user/month
Trial version
- Available
Best-suited for
- Organizations of all sizes
Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare
We use a secure and compliant Microsoft Cloud platform to deliver customized BPM solutions with powerful capabilities for data management and analytics, patient engagement management, team collaboration, and financial operations’ control.
Key advantages
- Highly flexible modular structure for creating tailored BPM solutions
- User-friendly interface
- A variety of community-developed add-ons and extensions available in the Microsoft Community Hub
Limitations
- Implementation and customization require solid technical expertise
- Can conflict with the Dynamics 365 healthcare accelerator if deployed in the same environment
Integrations
- Seamless integration with other Microsoft software and most widely-used EHR systems
- Provides APIs for simplified integration with custom apps
Cost
- Depends on the components used in a particular solution
Trial version
- Available for 30 days
Best-suited for
- Organizations of all sizes
Pega
Our team activates Pega BPM capabilities for healthcare, supporting your organization’s documentation, supply chain, and workflow management while also facilitating coordination and communication between different players in the healthcare sector.
Key advantages
- Sophisticated AI-powered analytical and intelligent process automation capabilities
- Industry-focused out-of-the-box functionality
- Very scalable
Limitations
- Complex implementation and integration
- Steep learning curve for new users
Integrations
- Easily integrated with Salesforce, SAP, and Microsoft software
- Provides connectors, APIs, and adapters for custom integrations and data sync
Cost
- From $35/user/month for Pega Platform cloud edition
- Custom version’s pricing depends on functionality
Trial version
- 30 days free Pega platform usage
Best-suited for
- Large organizations with complex processes
Bonita
Our experts help healthcare organizations implement open-source BPM solutions to automate document management, easily gather productivity metrics across all of the organization’s systems into the comprehensive dashboard, manage financial, administrative, and other tasks.
Key advantages
- User-friendly drag-and-drop interface for process design and automation
- Very scalable and flexible
Limitations
- Learning curve for non-technical users
- Advanced capabilities’ implementation requires additional help from tech specialists
- Free edition contains only basic functionality
Integrations
- Supports integrations through connectors and APIs
Cost
- Free community edition
- Contact vendor to learn the cost of Bonita Cloud Edition and Bonita Enterprise
Trial version
- Community edition is free to download and use
Best-suited for
- Organizations of all sizes
Custom solution
Thanks to our BPM center of excellence, we can deliver remarkably flexible systems, particularly valuable for care providers, as the rigidity of out-of-the-box solutions often interferes with healthcare workflows. Our developers can create custom BPM software that fits perfectly into your organization’s ecosystem and covers your business requirements by deploying a vast array of technological tools:
Need a reliable BPM implementation partner?
BPM software integrations
Business process management software increases interoperability and facilitates the cooperation of multiple departments within the hospital IT ecosystem. Integrating it with other healthcare systems will improve their productivity and make workflows that involve more than one system smoother and faster.
Common BPM integrations
Efficiently manage EHRs or EMRs and integrate them with other hospital systems to ensure interoperability within your organization and beyond, avoid any clinical data losses, and guarantee secure and compliant data handling.
Boost your client engagement campaigns and improve patient experiences by automating all sales and marketing processes, like following up with potential clients, reaching out to discharged patients, and crafting personalized care programs.
Assign specific clinical tasks under certain conditions to the most suitable employees, optimize working schedules for all staff members, speed up maintenance processes, and improve medical equipment procurement.
Deeply analyze processes within your organization and make decisions based on the BI insights right away by smoothly connecting analytical and practice management software.
Collaborate with manufacturers, warehouses, sellers, and buyers more efficiently by automating order, document, and financial management with BPM.
Increase medication procurement, management, and disposal accuracy and speed, while reducing order costs by streamlining data exchange between PMS and BPM software.
BPM implementation roadmap
Our team covers all aspects of BPM software implementation, from analyzing existing processes and infrastructure to introducing new apps, improving workflows, and ensuring the system’s productivity after the deployment.
1
Discovery
2
Implementation
3
Post-implementation
Challenges of BPM adoption in healthcare and potential solutions
Business process management is a great tool to significantly increase staff productivity and speed up clinical and administrative processes. However, the healthcare industry often suffers from obstacles that prevent care providers from effectively adopting high-impact BPM solutions. Luckily, they can easily overcome implementation-related challenges by partnering with experienced software implementation experts.
Challenge
Solution
Business process management solutions are deemed too costly by some care providers.
Business process management solutions are deemed too costly by some care providers.
There are multiple BPM software options on the market. Some organizations can consider adopting cheaper open-source solutions, while those who need more advanced functionality can turn to BPM consultants to help them balance out investments and return.
Healthcare professionals worry that BPM software will contribute to their burnout and therefore aren’t eager to change established workflows.
Healthcare professionals worry that BPM software will contribute to their burnout and therefore aren’t eager to change established workflows.
The adoption of business process management software should always be carried out alongside technological retraining of the staff involved. It is also crucial that organization leaders show examples of how new software can simplify staff’s daily tasks while improving the quality of care. Presentations and case studies can help change the personnel’s opinion about the system.
The outdated IT infrastructure and pushback from personnel can make BPM implementation more lengthy and expensive than predicted.
The outdated IT infrastructure and pushback from personnel can make BPM implementation more lengthy and expensive than predicted.
The software provider should analyze and take into account the existing infrastructure and the level of technical literacy of the future users before the implementation. It is also useful to establish some sort of centralized governance that coordinates and supervises the BPMS deployment operations.
Get more from healthcare software with BPM
The COVID pandemic has pushed the healthcare sector towards a much more digitized model. However, the mere expansion of the technological stack is not enough if it's not combined with a radical rethinking of business processes and the correct implementation of these new technologies into the clinical workflow. BPM solutions help connect all clinical and business processes of the entire organization under one roof, improving healthcare IT ecosystem’s interoperability and thus increasing the organization’s productivity and improving health outcomes. While some care providers are skeptical about adopting such solutions, others clearly understand that with the help of an experienced implementation partner, BPM software can become a game-changer for them, and they are ready to get ahead of their competitors.
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