Finally, evaluate the importance of monitoring the effect of technology on workflow.

Understanding Workflow Design

As you explored last week, the implementation of a new technology can dramatically affect the workflow of an organization. Newly implemented technologies can initially limit the productivity of users as they adjust to their new tools. Such implementations tend to be so significant that they often require workflows to be redesigned in order to achieve improvements in safety and patient outcomes. However, before workflows can be redesigned, they must first be analyzed. This analysis includes each step in completing a certain process. Some systems duplicate efforts or contain unnecessary steps that waste time and money and could even jeopardize patient health care. By reviewing and modifying the workflow, you enable greater productivity. This drive to implement new technologies has elevated the demand for nurses who can perform workflow analysis.

In this Discussion you explore resources that have been designed to help guide you through the process of workflow assessment.

To prepare:

• Take a few minutes and peruse the information found in the article “Workflow Assessment for Health IT Toolkit” listed in this week’s Learning Resources.
  • As you check out the information located on the different tabs, identify key concepts that you could use to improve a workflow in your own organization and consider how you could use them.
  • Go the Research tab and identify and read one article that is of interest to you and relates to your specialty area.

Post on or before Day 3 a summary of three different concepts you found in “Workflow Assessment for Health IT Toolkit” that would help in redesigning a workflow in the organization in which you work (or one with which you are familiar) and describe how you would apply them. Next, summarize the article you selected and assess how you could use the information to improve workflow within your organization. Finally, evaluate the importance of monitoring the effect of technology on workflow.

Please include headings 1)Tools to Assist in Redesigning Workflow (Flowcharts, interviews and usability evaluations are three tools that can be utilized to analyze workflows), 2) Article Summary ( Using qualitative studies to improve the usability of an EMRUsing qualitative studies to improve the usability of an EMR ),    3) Improving Workflow Within My Organization & Monitoring Effects of Technology on Workflow (I work in a hospital).