Standardisation of Supporting Processes in Healthcare A case study of the APQC Healthcare Process Classification Framework

Every patient is unique. This is why hospitals are characterised by highly complex and variable processes. We distinguish between two main categories of processes: The primary healthcare process concerned with the cure and care for the patient, and supporting processes such as logistics, planning, and administration. The American Productivity and Quality Center Healthcare Process Classification Framework (APQC-HPCF) is an open standard designed to support the standardisation of supporting processes in healthcare. In this paper, we perform case studies at two of the hospital’s clinics. Through observations, interviews, and analysis of process descriptions, we establish to which extent the processes described by APQC-HPCF are implemented in practice. This is done to both identify differences between the clinics’ supporting processes as well as to validate the efficacy of the APQC-HPCF, which has not been previously tested in scientific literature. Results show that the clinics perform nearly all of the prescribed processes. Deviation from the APQC-HPCF is mainly explained by the fact that some of its contents are designed for the American market and do not apply in the Dutch market. The clinics perform some additional supporting processes that are not present in the framework. Also, minor differences in supporting processes between the two clinics were found. The results show that the efficacy of the APQC-HPCF is validated by a large extent but cannot be proven completely.