Curando offers her care in an integrated way in five care zones spread across West Flanders. The aim is to arrange the care zones according to six formulas allowing the organisation to provide full support in the care continuum, ranging from homecare, local service centres, adult day care centres, short-stay care centres, and care residences to residential care homes. This allows referral between the different formulas.
Hict was asked to map all the processes within the organisation, both in the care zones and management departments. The objective was to analyse the processes and to identify bottlenecks. The bottlenecks were translated into a prioritised list with improvements and projects, involving further automation and adjustments in the operational organisation & structure as important tools.
Hict followed a standardised and structured approach to optimise all the processes in the organisation
First, the processes in the care zones were mapped. A “reference” care zone was indicated with the most “complete” set of formulas. Based on interviews with key stakeholders (management, care coordinator, coordinator day care centre, coordinator kitchen etc.) and targeted observations of the daily operation, the “as-is” situation was mapped. Subsequently the processes within the management departments were identified. This based on interviews with the heads of the departments.
Finally, the processes in the four remaining care zones were mapped based on interviews with a select group of employees per care zone. During a workshop, the processes were discussed with the main focus on the differences between the processes from the own care zone and the “reference” care zone.
The processes were structured to process clusters, classified by type: primary, supporting, management and governance processes.
Each process cluster consisted of sub-processes. For each sub-process the following elements were described:
Each cluster was fully described in a process book and if necessary supported by flow charts. Furthermore, a multi-dimensional “process tool” was developed. For example the tool provides insight in the number of employees and applied systems for each cluster. Also the tool made it possible to quickly demonstrate the differences between the care zones.
In addition to the processes, also insight was given into the mechanisms that affect the efficient running of the processes. This was presented using the McKinsey “7S” model.
Subsequently bottlenecks for each process cluster were defined and linked to possible improvement solutions in terms of: process, operational organisation & structure, systems and document management. Then the possible improvements were ranked as prioritised projects.
