Workflow...Is It Really That Bad?

Part 1, Discovering the Basics

    In our previous article, we discussed clinician staffing and the challenges that hospitals and healthcare organizations face in retaining their staff and how it directly effects patient safety.  For clinicians to provide a better healing environment, they must complete certain tasks throughout their shift. These tasks are referred to as clinical workflow. Clinical workflow includes but is not limited to caring for patients, moving patients, documenting, collecting samples, explaining, following up, and coordinating with other departments. The task list is long and is all factored by the number of patients that clinicians have per shift (ratios are dependent on country standards). 

     Now let’s dive a little deeper as to what exactly is in a workflow, the chart below segments the tasks that clinicians generally must accomplish on a daily basis with regard to their patients.

        Ok, now, let’s add in the workflow variables, such as interruptions, patient emergency interventions, covering for absent nurses, etc.  We can certainly begin to appreciate the heavy workload; however, clinical workflow still may seem doable with these challenges. So let’s throw a few more variables into the mix such as non-properly functioning and/or outdated IT equipment, task duplication, along with complicated solutions that do not integrate and over complicate.  

     On average nurses complete 72 different tasks per hour, said ResearchGate. When such tasks are over complicated, inefficiency and confusion is created which leads to an increase in preventable medical errors. It is no surprise when 90 % of nurses admit to lacking adequate time for proper patient care per a survey by MNA (Massachusetts Nurses Association). Imagine all of the above tasks taking place daily per patient; and most nurses may have several patients throughout a shift.

     This is usually how inefficient workflows creep into hospitals and healthcare systems. A lack of consistency and proper tools to safely do the job becomes risky for hospitals, clinicians, and most importantly patients. The numbers are shocking, MNA also reports that:

·      77% of nurses reported medication errors due to high patient ratios

·      72% said that patient readmission was a consequence high patient ratios               

·      64% said that patient injury or harm was a result of unsafe patient assignments

     There is no cookie cutter approach; every hospital and healthcare system is different. It is vital that hospitals take tailored aggressive action to improve clinical workflow. Technology is constantly changing and improving, and the facilities protocols, policies, and procedures need to follow suit. Clinical workflows must be audited and updated on a regular basis to be more efficient and conforming to standards; not only for their staff, but most importantly the safety of patients.