Q: What exactly is care mapping; it is known by other names?
“It can also be called workflows or algorithms. They help you identify problems that you may have in your clinic processes. They may help you identify any variations in practices. It’s The journey into your clinic.”
“So you would map out or just follow the patient and discover what happens and follow it [sic] all the way through. Observe and document what happens to see if there’s more than one way to do something, and then work with your team to identify any issues and figure out what to do to improve it.”
Q: When do we do care mapping?
“We do it on each process we have in the clinic. We conduct internal audits on a quarterly basis for our care mapping.”
Q: What initiates what you need to change a process?
“We wanted all of our clinics to operate on a standard basis. I think you can start care mapping on any process.”
Q: How do you bring your staff together to begin the process?
“We do clinic in-services where a team that specializes in a process goes from clinic to clinic and instructs them on something brand new. If we need to revise a process, we use online resources where staff members can log in and review new policies.”
“A lot of programs do care mapping by product line, like pre-placement physicals, or firefighter physicals. You need to make sure there is a process in there that standardizes [the practice].”
Q: One of the realities is that people at many program levels feel overwhelmed. What advice do you have for programs?
“Engage your staff because a part of mapping out the process is identifying what duplicate processes must be deleted, where time is being wasted, and how to save it. It may take some time to get it running but once you do, you actually end up saving an employee time in the long run.”
“Some programs start where they have the most issues. The staff members are the best resource to find [that] out. Ask them ‘Where do we have a process that has a long wait,’ ‘Where can we improve?’ That’s an ideal place to start.”
