A Best Practice Approach to Process Mapping in Community Healthcare Organisations

Introduction

The HSE Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs) face unique challenges in the delivery of high-quality, safe, and efficient care. An essential component of addressing these challenges is the development and implementation of clear, effective, and standardised policies and procedures. However, developing policies and procedures for the various service areas within a CHO can prove challenging due to the variations in the way particular tasks are conducted between service units.

This blog shares our experience of supporting the development of Policies and Procedures for older persons services, and outlines how process mapping, provided by HCI, is a useful means of streamlining the development of key Schedule 5 policies and procedures within a CHO area to create a single, coherent policy that combines the differences in each residential unit.

Understanding Process Mapping

Process mapping is a visual representation of the steps and decisions involved in the execution of a particular task or procedure in healthcare. Conducting process mapping is an effective way of looking at what you are currently doing and identifying how it can be improved. By clearly laying out the process, stakeholders can better understand the workflow, and the roles and responsibilities, which is crucial for developing effective policies and procedures.

HCI’s Best Practice Approach to Process Mapping

• Review of current Policies and Procedures: When conducting process mapping of Schedule 5 policies and procedures, HCI begin by conducting a review of the relevant policies currently in place in the CHO prior to the process mapping day of these policies. This review provides both an understanding of the residential units and their practices, while also outlining areas for discussion in the process mapping session.
• Engage Stakeholders: During each day’s process mapping session, members of staff including persons in charge (PICs), Directors of Nursing (DONs), Assistant DONs (including Practice Development) and other senior staff outline the current practices in place. Through discussion, staff can participate in determining what works and how it can be improved.
• Collaborate to agree on the Procedure: With the HCI Quality & Safety team’s regulatory expertise and guidance on best practice, the Schedule 5 requirements for the particular policy are outlined to the process mapping team. This is followed by a collaborative discussion to agree a common approach which would make up part of the consolidated policy for the Older Persons Service. This common approach includes the best practice approach and adheres to the regulations.
• Develop the Policies and Procedures: Following the process mapping session, using HCI’s Best Practice Team’s suite of Schedule 5 policies as a template, customised policy documents are developed by the Quality & Safety team.
• Review and sign off of Policies and Procedures: Once the evidence based, best practice policies and procedures have been developed, the CHO team members have an opportunity to review the policies and provide feedback on proposed changes. Once all documents have been reviewed and signed off, templates are circulated to the CHO for use.

Conclusion

While members of the process mapping team at times may struggle to find a common approach to the policy or feel that a current policy is adequate, process mapping days allow for discussion on elements of the policy that work well and whether the current process is as effective as possible. Additionally, members of the Quality and Safety team provides feedback on policies which incorporates best practice and experience from previous projects, which looks beyond the scope of Schedule 5 requirements.

Strong staff engagement, including the provision of a variety of perspectives and ideas, is critical to effective process mapping sessions. Having the relevant senior staff members present to explain processes when discussing a particular policy also improves the quality of the process mapping.

Process mapping with HCI is aided by the range of policies and procedures developed by our Best Practice team and this ensures that all aspects of the required policies are covered. Our Best Practice team can also provide access to a suite of Best Practice documents for residential services, which covers policies beyond those required under Schedule 5.

For more information or assistance with developing your policies and procedures, then contact HCI at info@hci.care or call 01 629 2559.

Author

This blog was prepared by Emmet Geraghty, Regulatory Analyst at HCI.