Impact Analysis of Facility Failures on Healthcare Delivery Process: Use Case–Driven Approach

Abstract

The healthcare industry is growing in complexity, and providing a safe healthcare setting increases the challenges for many healthcare facility managers. Most facility information is not linked to the healthcare delivery process, making it difficult to identify interactions and overlaps that may have critical implications for the smooth operation of the healthcare delivery process and patient safety. This paper focused on an impact analysis of facility failures on the healthcare delivery process and involved a combination of research methods including a case study, interviews with key healthcare practitioners as part of a case study in a major hospital, and cognitive walk-throughs with domain experts. The interactions of facility information with the healthcare delivery process helped to identify critical facility failures through planned and unplanned safety events. Use cases, use-case diagrams, scenario interaction diagrams, and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) were developed to learn and assess the functionality of the healthcare system communication related to the planned and unplanned events, and a number of factors associated with the facility failures were recognized.