Central Arguments Regarding Clinical Process Redesign

This article discusses the central arguments regarding clinical process redesign and its positive influence on elective surgery programs and emergency department services. It also highlights the gaps in information and lack of discussion on implementation challenges. The conclusions emphasize the importance of clinical process redesign in improving healthcare outcomes and patient experience.

Central Arguments Regarding Clinical Process Redesign
The central arguments presented by McGrath, et al. (2008) relate to the positive influence of
clinical process redesign on the potential of elective surgery programs and emergency
department services across Flinders Medical Center and New South Wales. The redesigning
of the clinical processes and systems, in the authors’ opinion, substantially benefit the health
care teams and the treated patients. Evidence-based literature reveals similar findings by
recommending clinical process redesign in the context of optimizing the unplanned arrivals
of patients in the emergency departments of various Australian hospitals. The clinical process
redesign process not only enhances the care continuum in the hospital settings but also
improves the overall patient experience to an unprecedented level (O'Connell et al., 2008).
The authors of the presented article claim that the clinical process redesign conventions have
already been implemented in other sectors with utmost success; however, the health care
systems never faced such a transformation ever before in history.
Undoubtedly, the redesign principles and processes have been utilized to bring a major
transformation in business management and information technology practices across the
globe. Transforming leadership theory by James MacGregor Burns focuses on effectively
modifying the organizational psychology for accepting positive changes across the
operational environment (Langston.Edu, 2009). The utilization of innovative change
processes in different industries while bypassing the traditional/conservative approaches has
been a recent development in today’s world. The health care sector experiences a similar
transformation in the context of improving the overall patient care experience in hospital
settings (AHRQ, 2018). The clinical process redesigning by health care organizations is
based on practice facilitation, practice-based research networks, patient-centered medical
home, health risk assessment, cultural competency, and health literacy requirements. The
clinical practice transformation effectively focuses on improving the health-related quality of
life and wellness outcomes of the treated patients through shared decision-making. The
clinical process redesign aims to satisfy the individualized requirements of patients and their
caretakers in a cost-effective manner (McGrath et al., 2008).
Reported Gaps/Lack of Information
The authors of the presented articles did not evidently undertake a retrospective assessment
of the clinical process redesign mechanisms and failed to discuss the feasibility of the
recommended change model in real-time clinical practice scenarios. The authors also did not

substantially perform an in-depth assessment of process implementation challenges through
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis tool. Ironically, the
researchers and health care practitioners have yet not established retrospective applications to
effectively monitor the adaptability and performance of the clinical process redesign
interventions in the emergency departments and operative settings (Samaranayake, Dadich,
Fitzgerald, & Zeitz, 2016). This barrier substantially questions the feasibility of clinical
process redesign across the Australian medical facilities. The clinical process redesign
challenges in the emergency care units are based on substantial variations in patient discharge
and admission pathways (El-Eid, Kaddoum, Tamim, & Hitti, 2015). The care expedition of
patients mainly occurs through front-loading practices in the emergency department that
disproportionately increases the treatment burden for treating practitioners. The gross
mismanagement between emergency department’s capacity and patient care demands leads to
departmental crowding and poor patient flow (Jarvis, 2016).
The elevated patient turnover in the emergency departments barricades the prioritization of
medical interventions in accordance with the critically of the reported disease/trauma
conditions. Furthermore, the absence of patient flow indicators and related data management
practices lead to various organizational complications and logistical issues in the emergency
care setting (Varga, Lelovics, Soós, & Oláh, 2017). The absence of definitive mechanisms to
manage patients’ psychological crisis makes the therapeutic administration highly difficult in
complex clinical scenarios. This deficit warrants the deployment of appropriate mental health
care attendances in the emergency department (Barratt et al., 2016). The emergency
department physicians consistently experience the anxiety and stress of patients’ caretakers
and strive hard to mitigate their psychological challenges while concomitantly managing a
range of traumatic conditions and disease processes.
Undifferentiated disease conditions also substantially challenge the therapeutic process and
elevate the risk of medical errors. The prioritized management of major trauma cases and
acutely life-threatening illness/injuries in the absence of appropriate staff and expertise
proves highly challenging for the health care professionals/treatment providers in the
emergency department (Frink, Lechler, Debus, & Ruchholtz, 2017). The disproportionate
staff allocation practices in relation to various treatment models lead to therapeutic
mismanagement and resultant treatment errors in the emergency room (ACFEM, 2014). The
lack of coordination between the emergency department staff and inpatient departments’
practitioners along with the varying care models leads to several patient care complications in

the emergency department. The absence of coordination between elective hand care and
emergency department services substantially deteriorate the patient care outcomes across the
clinical practice environment (Chung, Sood, & Granick, 2016). The presented article by
McGrath, et al. (2008) does not thoroughly discuss these pitfalls and their mitigation
strategies in relation to the implementation of clinical process redesign in the selected health
care facilities.
Author’s Conclusions and Health Leadership and Management Implications
The clinical process redesign mechanisms effectively guide the health care stakeholders to
establish sustainable changes across the clinical practice environment. The sustainability
cycle in the health care sector reciprocates through mutual coordination between the standard
work processes, maintenance strategies, and continuous improvement interventions (McGrath
et al., 2008). Clinical process redesign is entirely based on process mapping, staff
engagement, and patients’ empowerment in the medical facilities (Ben-Tovim, Dougherty,
O’Connell, & McGrath, 2008). The adoption of lean thinking approaches is highly warranted
for the incorporation of value-added services, staff expertise enhancement, patients’ recovery
time valuation, workflow configuration, and development of end-to-end processes for
optimizing the overall treatment burden in the emergency department.
The success of the clinical process redesign is based on establishing a surge for continuous
process improvement and performance management strategies across the clinical practice
environment. Furthermore, the establishment of ambitious targets, data accessibility
enhancement, team-based problem-solving approaches, and clinical leadership prove to be
the cornerstones for redesigning a range of significant patient-oriented clinical processes in
the medical facilities (McGrath et al., 2008). These evidence-based outcomes indicate the
significance of clinical process redesign in the context of enhancing health care outcomes,
patient experience, patient flow, and their safe access to the emergency care units/operative
settings. Recommended clinical transformation also proves beneficial for the health care staff
members in the context of optimizing their work burden through the sustained enhancement
of task allocation practices. This will not only improve patient care outcomes but also
minimize the risk of medical errors across the clinical practice environment.
The enhancement operational efficiency of the emergency departments and surgical settings
must be done in a manner to improve patient satisfaction and care quality while effectively
accommodating an elevated volume of patients for their therapeutic management (Sayah,

Rogers, Devrajan, Kingsley-Rocker, & Lobon, 2014). The authors of the presented article
advocate the need for implementing web-based technology for effectively enhancing the
quality of therapeutic interventions in the medical facilities. Accordingly, the health care
leaders need to evaluate and identify the factors for expanding the adoption of electronic
health record in the emergency room and operative/elective surgery settings (Tavares &
Oliveira, 2018). The health care leaders need to use motivational approaches to effectively
implement an integrated health care model through clinical process redesign in the
emergency department and elective surgery units. The health care leaders require establishing
effective partnerships with patients and other stakeholders to facilitate sustainable
improvement in health care approaches. They need to utilize transactional leadership
strategies to facilitate the initiation of continued program activities through capacity building
in the selected medical facilities. They must configure effective strategies to recover cost and
facilitate sustainable development while expanding the health care benefits for the patient
population (Lennox, Maher, & Reed, 2018).
The health care leaders will need to utilize dynamic team leadership model in the context of
coordinating, monitoring, and assigning the clinical process redesign interventions for
improving the desired outputs related to patients’ length of stay, guidelines’ adherence, and
cost-effectiveness of medical services (Rosenman, Branzetti, & Fernandez, 2016). The
systematic use of team members’ expertise, prehospital report assessment, and time
management are highly needed to effectively improve the clinical processes in the selected
medical facilities. The clinical leaders need to orchestrate their resources and configure an
evidence-based rubric to improve the presentation, clarity, accuracy, and relevance of
discharge summaries in the emergency department. This strategy will substantially improve
the quality of treatment follow-up sessions across the inpatient wards and reduce the risk of
therapeutic errors and preventable patient readmissions/reassessments (Russell, Hewage, &
Thompson, 2014). Eventually, the minimization of additional healthcare burden will
effectively save the clinical practice resources for their meaningful utilization in prospective
clinical scenarios. The health care leaders require utilizing Lewin’s 3-step change theory to
consolidate the desired redesigned clinical and health care processes in the selected medical
facilities (Kumar, Kumar, Deshmukh, & Adhish, 2015). The resultant enhancement of patient
flow, health care access, and service delivery quality will expand the patients’ overall health
and wellness outcomes to an unprecedented level. The health care leaders will also need to
perform a SWOT analysis of the recommended clinical process redesign strategies to

facilitate the scope of their continuous and sustainable improvement in the Australian elective
surgery settings and emergency departments.
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