Step-by-step process analysis for hospital facility management: An insight into the OPIK research project.

Purpose - Healthcare systems are very costly and the inpatient treatment in hospitals is a major part of these costs. The question is, how can greater efficiency be effected without influencing the core business of a hospital - the cure of patients. Through improving the process flow of facility management (FM) processes, savings within these processes and less disturbance of primary processes should be accomplishable. Design/methodology/approach - In order to help introducing professional FM methods in hospitals the OPIK research project has designed standard processes for typical FM services. Processes have been field tested and evaluated in terms of interference with the core process as well as cost and quality factors have been determined. Findings - The research has shown that standard processes can be defined and the performance can be improved through restructuring the process flow by having detailed knowledge of the process characteristics. The analysis of data through linear regression shows a significant correlation between product costs and possible clearing units. These results encourage to look for reasonable methods of cost allocation. Research limitations/implications - In terms of statistical significance the good results can be up valued through increasing the amount of data by applying the method in other hospitals. Future activities should concentrate on this room for improvement. Originality/value - For the first time a reasonable basis for comparing FM processes in hospitals has been defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]