Proposal of data warehouse in the context of healthcare process reengineering

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to set out the relationship between business process reengineering (BPR) and data warehouse (DW) and identify the advantages brought by the integration of DW technology in BPR projects.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is primarily based on a case study which was conducted in a Tunisian hospital and allowed some lessons to be learned.FindingsIntroducing changes in the field of healthcare services has become a necessity to provide better satisfaction to patients and to offer faster services and of better quality. So, the BPR approach can be applied to introduce these changes and provide better satisfaction to recipients of services, i.e. the hospital patients. This study is based on a case study based on the BPR application for healthcare process in some services of Farhat Hached Hospital in Sousse, Tunisia. This case study has mainly contributed to a proposed DW for healthcare services.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed DW and the new corresponding process have not yet been implemented in the real life of the considered services. The research work in this project allowed the provision of detailed and rational justifications for the information technology introduction in BPR applied in healthcare services and in particular to the implementation of the DW concept. In addition to the detailed justifications, the research paper provided the prerequisite for the success of the project as well as its technical specifications and appropriateness to the specifity to the local setting.Originality/valueThe lessons learned were related in one hand to the particularities of BPR projects using the DW technology and on the other hand to the advantages brought by the DW technologies in the BPR projects. The following questions are considered in this paper: what are the particularities of the BPR projects using the DW technology? What are the main contributions of the DW technology to BPR projects?