Approaches to Workflow Analysis in Healthcare Settings

Attention to workflow is an important component of a comprehensive approach to designing usable information systems. In healthcare, inattention to workflow is associated with poorly accepted systems and unforeseen effects of use. How best to examine workflow for the purpose of system design is in itself the subject of scientific inquiry. Several disciplines offer approaches to the study of workflow that can be tailored to meet the needs of systems designers in healthcare settings. This paper will describe several methodologies for workflow analysis according to the major schools of thought from which they have been developed. The level of workflow they examine and their theoretical underpinnings will also be described.