Reengineering of the patient flow process at the Western Sydney Area Health Service

The paper discusses the re-engineering of "Patient Flow" and "Billing" processes at the Western Sydney Area Health Service. Western Sydney Area Health Service (WSAHS or the Area) is a large public health institution under the state government of New South Wales, situated in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. WSAHS provides health care to a patient base of 1.4 million people. Total capacity is 2000 beds. It employs over 10000 staff and has an operating budget of $A900 million per year. Despite achieving productivity gains of 10% per year over the last seven years (1991-98), the waiting lists have continued to grow. Being dependent on public funding, the Area had to find a more dramatic approach than the TQM methods to date. Of the several options considered, the business process reengineering (BPR) approach of the US Military Health Services, and the Mayo Clinic Scottsdale\´s effort of multi-disciplinary technique to implement organisational changes seemed particularly attractive. It was therefore decided to embark upon a BPR project to reengineer the Patient Flow and Billing processes. The benefits to the Western Sydney Area Health Service are significant. First there is greatly enhanced service to the patient. Then there is improvement in relationship with the patients, and with the visiting medical officers. Finally there is a major improvement in the cash flow and bad debt recovery.