Title: A combined IDEF0 and FMEA approach to healthcare management reengineering

Authors: Maurizio Bevilacqua; Giovanni Mazzuto; Claudia Paciarotti

Addresses: DIISM, Università Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, 60131, Ancona, Italy ' DIISM, Università Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, 60131, Ancona, Italy ' DIISM, Università Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, 60131, Ancona, Italy

Abstract: In the context of healthcare organisations, this paper develops a systemic approach able to detect waste and errors and to suggest organisational and/or technological solutions for continuous improvement. The framework proposed implies the integration between the IDEF0 and the FMEA methods. The developed methodology is applied to the pharmacy department of a medium Italian hospital. Using IDEF0, it is possible to identify all the activities occurring within the warehouse of pharmacy. Moreover, the processes mapping allows exploring how the pharmacy communicates with departments, and vice versa. Subsequently, the FMEA technique is applied in order to perform an analysis of risks in the various activities identified. Such a deep analysis of the activities management allows performing corrective actions in order to improve the logistic aspect and, consequently, minimise the errors occurrences. An extensive validation in different healthcare settings is required to fully prove benefits and limitations of the developed approach.

Keywords: failure mode and effects analysis; FMEA; IDEF0; risk assessment; drug management; business process reengineering; BPR; healthcare management; health sector; healthcare industry; waste; continuous improvement; Italy; pharmacy warehouses; drugs; pharmacies; hospitals; organisational communication; procurement management; errors; logistics; corrective actions; corrections.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2015.066286

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2015 Vol.8 No.1/2, pp.25 - 43

Published online: 24 Jan 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article