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Business Process Re-Engineering Case Study

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BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING AT THE HOSPITALS: A CASE STUDY AT SINGAPORE HOSPITAL
Arun Kumar and Linet Ozdamar School of Mechanical & Production Engineering Nanyang Technological University 50 Nanyang Avenue, SINGAPORE-639798 Email: makumar@ntu.edu.sg

KEYWORDS Business process reengineering, Healthcare. ABSTRACT As health care costs increase, there is a need for healthcare service providers to look for ways to contain costs and to achieve a higher efficiency at their operating facilities without sacrificing quality. This paper studies a case in employing business process reengineering techniques on one aspect of a health care service – surgical work. The system is simulated focusing on the processes that contribute to the effective …show more content…

There is a lack of health care professionals in Singapore. The local doctor-to-patient ratio was 140 doctors for every 100,000 of the population for the year 2000. According to OECD data, the average ratios for the decade of the '90s for Australia and New Zealand were 240 and 218 respectively (Wee 2002). Business Process Reengineering in Healthcare Managers use process reengineering methods to discover the best processes for performing work, and that these processes be reengineered to optimize productivity (Weicher et al. 1995). Hammer and Champy (1993) state that BPR refers to the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality and speed. Business processes are sequences and combinations of activities that deliver value to a customer (Coulson-Thomas 1996). A core business process usually creates value by the capabilities it gives the company for competitiveness. A limited number of such core business processes can be identified in any company, and enhancing those processes can lead to business improvement. Over the last few years, the reengineering concept has evolved from a "radical change" to account for the contextual realism (Caron et al. 1994, Earl 1995). Davenport and Short (1990) prescribe a five-step approach to BPR. They argue that process reengineering requires taking a broader view of both IT and business activity, and of the

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