Mapping the integrated care pathway into BPM for health case management

Abstract

Teamwork, collaboration and coordination are key aspects of the patient-centric approach taken by modern healthcare. Although many projects have been and are currently being undertaken to improve support for health care professionals, adequate support for teamwork, communication and coordination has yet to be achieved. The delivery of the healthcare service is very challenging as it involves heterogeneous distributed systems, multi-professionals and dependent tasks among each. In addition, the treatment journey of each patient is unique as a decision is usually made according to several constraints related to the patient, medical condition, patient's choice, available resources and/or doctor's consultation decision. We believe that, in order to provide the required support, it is necessary to explicitly acknowledge the patient' s medical state within their treatment journey. This project proposes the use of a Business Process Management (BPM) system that uses associations between patients, health care professionals, and the Integrated Care Pathway (ICP) to provide improved support for healthcare professionals as individuals and members of integrated care teams. Moreover, mapping the ICP into the BPM system will help support the implementation of best practice according to the national guidelines. By leveraging the information contained in these associations, and understanding the patient progress along the dynamic care pathway, this proposal provides tailored context-based actions. This includes automated notifications, alerts, scheduling and timers, as well as supporting treatment continuity and tracking as the patient progresses through their treatment journey. Clinicians' and developers' feedback on this proposal has been very positive. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.