Using the Delphi Method to Identify Hospital-Specific Business Process Management Capabilities in The Netherlands

Business Process Management (BPM) is an important discipline for organisations that are desiring quality improvement. Many models for assessing, comparing and improving the maturity of organisational BPM are found in literature. An effective BPM Maturity Model should contain a validated set of capability areas specific to the application domain. We attempt to fill a gap by providing a model specific to the hospital industry. This paper presents the first phase in the development of such a model. For this we use the Delphi Method, a multiround technique for collecting rich data and gaining consensus among a panel of experts. Based on the opinions provided by experts in hospitals and academia in The Netherlands, we identify relevant and domain-specific capabilities for improving BPM maturity in the Dutch hospital industry. Hospitals are characterised by complex, multidisciplinary processes. Our findings reflect that capabilities related to people and organisational culture are most important for achieving BPM maturity.