Some years ago I was a member of the IProdE. Do you remember The IProdE? Yes Production Engineers. Do they still exist? I'm interested in Service design in the NHS and the nearest engineering equivalent I can think of in Production Engineering. I'd love to hear from any Engineers working on Service Design in the NHS.
Alan. Thank you for your message. One of the drivers for my research is the fact that SOPs do not represent what is done. This is a very dangerous situation for any organisation as it leaves the organisation open to litigation and also prevents managed process improvement never mind process management. SOPs are not based on work processes. My approach to service design is to identify work processes, not an easy task in the NHS, and then establish a degree, initially, of process management. The structure of the resulting process documentation must show, amongst other things, links to IT systems in use and record keeping. This is the only way to remove the variation that the NHS is plagued with. Clinical aspects are not documented here but linked to relevant NICE guidance documents. As you so rightly say there is no such thing as a standard patient or a standard clinician. Process documentation must take this into account but not attempt to regulate it. Your work, I think, is to gain more understanding of the complexity of the clinical aspects of the process. It does seem to me that there is a deal of synergy to be gained from a joint approach as the process/service design must be a combination of these two aspects. The Service consists of a number of discrete but linked processes. The final design must comply with the requirements of the relevant SOPs or the SOPs must be changed. It is my view that if a Process Management System is established within a Trust then SOPs could be done away with. I think I’m alone in that view at the moment!
Alan. Thank you for your message. One of the drivers for my research is the fact that SOPs do not represent what is done. This is a very dangerous situation for any organisation as it leaves the organisation open to litigation and also prevents managed process improvement never mind process management. SOPs are not based on work processes. My approach to service design is to identify work processes, not an easy task in the NHS, and then establish a degree, initially, of process management. The structure of the resulting process documentation must show, amongst other things, links to IT systems in use and record keeping. This is the only way to remove the variation that the NHS is plagued with. Clinical aspects are not documented here but linked to relevant NICE guidance documents. As you so rightly say there is no such thing as a standard patient or a standard clinician. Process documentation must take this into account but not attempt to regulate it. Your work, I think, is to gain more understanding of the complexity of the clinical aspects of the process. It does seem to me that there is a deal of synergy to be gained from a joint approach as the process/service design must be a combination of these two aspects. The Service consists of a number of discrete but linked processes. The final design must comply with the requirements of the relevant SOPs or the SOPs must be changed. It is my view that if a Process Management System is established within a Trust then SOPs could be done away with. I think I’m alone in that view at the moment!
