Business process re-engineering: lost hope or learning opportunity?

Abstract

In the 1990s, business process re-engineering (BPR) sparkled for a while as a means of transforming health service performance. While many of the implementation projects report more modest gains, there remains much to learn from the approach. The recent emphasis on developing patient-focused services has seen a re-emergence of some of the key ideas of BPR. This article argues that we should reflect on the learning experience offered by BPR experiments in the NHS to inform current modernisation reforms.