Using Enterprise Ontology for Improving the National Health System - Demonstrated in the Case of a Pharmacy and an Emergency Department

The global healthcare spending has constantly increased in the last decades, and there is data showing inefficiency in resource consumption that is not reflected in healthcare improvement. The need to introduce new ways to do the same thing at a lower cost is rational. To address this, we propose a method based on Design Engineering Methodology for Organizations (DEMO) to find non value-added transactions that must be redesigned to simplify processes. This methodology was chosen as a basis for our solution because it provides a better understanding of the dynamics of an organization, and allows a good alignment between the enterprise design and operation. A demonstration was accomplished within an Emergency Medical Service and a Pharmacy, making it possible to find transactions that can be improved or automated. Evaluation was carried out by means of interviews, the Four Principles from Osterle et al., and the Moody and Shanks Quality Framework. Results prove that the method yields an adequate and clear process view and is reliable when it comes to improving healthcare operational processes.