Knowledge map and enterprise ontology for enhancing business process reengineering in healthcare: a case of radiology department

Abstract

The spending in healthcare is constantly increasing according to available data, and the resource consumption does not actually reflect expected improvement in the healthcare services. As a result there is urgent need for healthcare to reengineer their business process in order to achieve improvements in critical area such as cost and quality. To address this issue, this study proposed a method based on design science approach by integrating knowledge map, enterprise ontology and lean in order to find the non-value added transactions and subsequently reengineer them to enhance healthcare efficiency. Enterprise ontology provides a details and better understanding of dynamic nature of an organization as such was chosen for as basis for this study. The method was demonstrated in radiology department making it possible to find and addresses non-value added transactions and subsequently reengineer the department. Evaluation was carried out by means of descriptive method using Moody and Shank framework and interview with healthcare practitioners. The finding shows that the method has enhanced healthcare efficiency by eliminating non-value added transactions.