Organizational Workflow Research Articles

Guidelines and a software tool for quality assessment of BPMN business process models

This paper considers the problem of quality measurement of Business Process Model and Notation business process models. Business process models presented using BPMN and other notations are graphical schemes similar to flowcharts or UML (Unified Modeling Language) activity diagrams utilized in software engineering. Business process modeling strives to capture current enterprise workflows for analysis and improvement using automation through workflow systems deployment. Therefore, designed high-quality business process models have to be understandable and maintainable. It can help efficiently identify and replace all “weak spots” of described organizational workflows with more efficient solutions. Whereas business process models which are not understandable, unstructured and uncertain may cause even more errors than benefits. Therefore, this study proposes guidelines and a software tool for errors detection in business process models.

Transformation of perception and requirements for seaside towns, their saturation, architectural appearance

Introduction. The present-day life of Russian seaside towns, their architecture and aesthetics feature an urgent demand for improving the quality and adding new choice options for residents and guests, the variability in the functional saturation of architectural objects and, what is also extremely important, the holistic and comfortable appearance of buildings.
 Materials and methods. The author will consider how the perception of life in seaside towns has changed, what requests have appeared, and what can be done to meet them. These tasks will be considered in a social context from the standpoint of each category of residents. The author uses Sevastopol as a case city.
 Results. The author has identified rapidly changing workflow organization methods, tightening standards of comfortable places of residence, their surroundings, and tougher requirements for an urban environment as a whole. Artistic and stylistic unity, environmental aesthetics have become obligatory and integral constituents of comfortable living in a space capable of giving a quick response to the needs of a resident. It is necessary to trace the historical and modern trends inherent in a particular place, to understand what requests citizens have, what is needed for the harmonious development and life in it, what special features should be inherent in new residential buildings, what artistic and stylistic proposals are to be made.
 Conclusions. A set of common problems and requests, that require solutions and entail a number of circumstances creating discomfort in urban living, has been formulated for each category of citizens identified using cultural and economic criteria. To solve these problems, the authors suggests concepts of a development model, demonstrating multifunctionality and variability, creating a holistic comfortable environment, focusing both on socioeconomic issues and equally important aspects of architectural and stylistic perception. Recommendations on the “use” of this model and the development of urban appearance are also made.

Engineering Novel Lentiviral Vectors for Labelling Tumour Cells and Oncogenic Proteins.

Lentiviral vectors are unique and highly efficient genetic tools to incorporate genetic materials into the genome of a variety of cells whilst conserving biosafety. Their rapid acceptance made it necessary to improve existing protocols, including molecular engineering and cloning, production of purified lentiviral particles, and efficient infection of target cells. In addition to traditional protocols, which can be time-consuming, several biotechnology companies are providing scientists with commercially available lentiviral constructs and particles. However, these constructs are limited by their original form, tend to be costly, and lack the flexibility to re-engineer based on the ever-changing needs of scientific projects. Therefore, the current study organizes the existing methods and integrates them with novel ideas to establish a protocol that is simple and efficient to implement. In this study we, (i) generated an innovative site-directed nucleotide attachment/replacement and DNA insertion method using unique PCR primers, (ii) improved traditional methods by integrating plasmid clarification steps, (iii) utilized endogenous mRNA as a resource to construct new lentiviruses, and (iv) identified an existing purification method and incorporated it into an organized workflow to produce high-yield lentiviral particle collection. Finally, (v) we verified and demonstrated the functional validity of our methods using an infection strategy.

Artificial Intelligence in Diagnostic Radiology: Where Do We Stand, Challenges, and Opportunities.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most revolutionizing development in the health care industry in the current decade, with diagnostic imaging having the greatest share in such development. Machine learning and deep learning (DL) are subclasses of AI that show breakthrough performance in image analysis. They have become the state of the art in the field of image classification and recognition. Machine learning deals with the extraction of the important characteristic features from images, whereas DL uses neural networks to solve such problems with better performance. In this review, we discuss the current applications of machine learning and DL in the field of diagnostic radiology.Deep learning applications can be divided into medical imaging analysis and applications beyond analysis. In the field of medical imaging analysis, deep convolutional neural networks are used for image classification, lesion detection, and segmentation. Also used are recurrent neural networks when extracting information from electronic medical records and to augment the use of convolutional neural networks in the field of image classification. Generative adversarial networks have been explicitly used in generating high-resolution computed tomography and magnetic resonance images and to map computed tomography images from the corresponding magnetic resonance imaging. Beyond image analysis, DL can be used for quality control, workflow organization, and reporting.In this article, we review the most current AI models used in medical imaging research, providing a brief explanation of the various models described in the literature within the past 5 years. Emphasis is placed on the various DL models, as they are the most state-of-art in imaging analysis.

POSB229 Organizational Assessment of Duodenoscopes in US Hospitals

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recommended the use of duodenoscope designs with single-use components to improve patient safety. This may affect the organizational workflow in the relevant healthcare facility. This research aims to explore whether the prevalence of procedural delays due to equipment availability is likely to be affected by the change from reusable to single-use or semi-disposable duodenoscopes. The research further aims to explore whether the respective breakage rates are perceived as different, as well as how this affects the procedure being undertaken.

Unpacking the “O” in VRIO: The role of workflow interdependence in the loss and replacement of strategic human capital

AbstractResearch Summary: An underresearched and undertheorized factor in the resource‐based view's VRIO acronym is the “O”: organizational deployment. Exploiting a rule change that exogenously shifted the workflow interdependence of NBA basketball teams, we examine how the benefit provided by a resource depends upon the way it is deployed in an organization's workflow. We also examine how workflow interdependence influences the relative effectiveness of two capabilities for obtaining resources—external acquisition versus internal development. We find that losing star players is more damaging under conditions of greater pooled interdependence and that external acquisition capabilities are more effective for mitigating this damage. Conversely, we find that losing non‐star players is more damaging under conditions of greater reciprocal interdependence and that internal development capabilities are more effective for mitigating this damage.Managerial Summary: Different organizations arrange their workflows in different ways. Some organizations use more individual‐focused workflows, where the performance of each employee is relatively independent of the performance of coworkers, while others use more team‐focused workflows, where the performance of each employee depends critically on the performance of coworkers. Does an organization's way of arranging its workflow affect the amount of damage done when a key employee quits? Does the answer depend upon whether the departing employee is a star performer? Does it depend upon the organization's capability for recruiting high‐potential replacements from other organizations, or its capability for improving the performance of its existing employees? By analyzing data from NBA basketball teams, we find that the loss of a star player is more damaging when teams use a more individual‐focused workflow, but that capability for recruiting high‐potential players mitigates this damage. Conversely, we also find that the loss of a non‑star player is more damaging when teams use a more team‐focused workflow, but that capability for improving performance of a team's existing players mitigates this damage. So, our results suggest that organizations should develop capabilities that fit their workflow and their relative risk of losing star employees versus non‑stars.

Magnitude of client satisfaction and its associated factors with outpatient pharmacy service at Dubti General Hospital, Afar, North East Ethiopia: A cross sectional study.

In Ethiopia the pharmacy service has had several gaps among these were low patient satisfaction, and poor availability of essential pharmaceuticals. In addition, previous studies showed variation in magnitude of client satisfaction, and there is no previous study in the study area. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine client satisfaction with outpatient pharmacy service and associated factors among adult clients at Dubti General Hospital in Afar, Ethiopia. A hospital based cross sectional study design was employed from February 1 to March 30, 2020 at Dubti General Hospital. Participants were selected by systematic random sampling method. Bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression was computed to assess statistical association between the outcome variable, and independent variables. AOR with 95% CI were used to show statistical Significance at P <0.05. The overall satisfaction towards outpatient pharmacy service was 165(40.5%). Regarding associated factors, service payment insured through their workplace was positively associated with satisfaction (AOR = 3.178, 95% CI: 1.294-7.80) where as availability of some medications (AOR = 0.393, 95% CI: 0.208-0.741), unfair medication cost (AOR = 0.613, 95% CI: 0.607-0.910), and lack of organized pharmacy work flow (AOR = 0.105, 95% CI: 0.049-0.221) were negatively associated with clients' satisfaction. The clients' satisfaction in this study is low that warrants immediate corrective measures. Corrective measures should be taken based on identified gaps such as improving drug availability, pharmacy work flow, and cost of medications.

Reducing Nurse Practitioner Turnover in Home Based Primary Care: A Department of Veterans Affairs Quality Improvement Project.

Access to healthcare is challenging for both Veterans and the nation's general population. To keep up with national primary healthcare needs, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) implemented Home Based Primary Care (HBPC). After a structure remodel at a Texas VA medical center, 40% of nurse practitioners (NPs) left the HBPC department in one year. The Anticipated Turnover Scale and the Misener NP Job Satisfaction Scale were administered online (n = 7), and results were used to complete a program evaluation. Forty-three percent of participants indicated intent to leave, and 56% of answers indicated job dissatisfaction. Seven categories were identified to mitigate voluntary turnover: Recognition; Shared governance; Orientation; Full practice authority; Collaboration; Organizational workflow maps; and Mentoring. Implementation of recommendations resulting from this project may help retain NPs in both VA and non-VA organizations, reduce organizational costs, support optimal patient outcomes, and increase access to healthcare.

AI for augmenting human judgement in Business Processes Management

The paper outlines the recent trends in the evolution of Business Process Management (BPM) – especially the application of AI for decision support. AI has great potential to augment human judgement. Indeed, Machine Learning might be considered as a supplementary and complimentary solution to enhance and support human productivity throughout all aspects of personal and professional life. The idea of merging technologies for organizational learning and workflow management was first put forward by Wargitsch. Herein, completed business cases stored in an organizational memory are used to configure new workflows, while the selection of an appropriate historical case is supported by a case-based reasoning component. This informational environment has been recognized in the world as being effective and has become quite common because of the significant increase in the use of artificial intelligence tools. This article discusses also how automated planning techniques (one of the oldest areas in AI) can be used to enable a new level of automation and processing support. The authors of the article decided to analyse this topic and discuss the scientific state of the art and the application of AI in BPM systems for decision-making support. It should be noted that readily available software exists for the needs of the development of such systems in the field of artificial intelligence. The paper also includes a unique case study with production system of Decision Support, using controlled machine learning algorithms to predictive analytical models.

Alignment of Key Stakeholders' Priorities for Patient-Facing Tools in Digital Health: Mixed Methods Study.

BackgroundThere is widespread agreement on the promise of patient-facing digital health tools to transform health care. Yet, few tools are in widespread use or have documented clinical effectiveness.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to gain insight into the gap between the potential of patient-facing digital health tools and real-world uptake.MethodsWe interviewed and surveyed experts (in total, n=24) across key digital health stakeholder groups—venture capitalists, digital health companies, payers, and health care system providers or leaders—guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.ResultsOur findings revealed that external policy, regulatory demands, internal organizational workflow, and integration needs often take priority over patient needs and patient preferences for digital health tools, which lowers patient acceptance rates. We discovered alignment, across all 4 stakeholder groups, in the desire to engage both patients and frontline health care providers in broader dissemination and evaluation of digital health tools. However, major areas of misalignment between stakeholder groups have stymied the progress of digital health tool uptake—venture capitalists and companies focused on external policy and regulatory demands, while payers and providers focused on internal organizational workflow and integration needs.ConclusionsMisalignment of the priorities of digital health companies and their funders with those of providers and payers requires direct attention to improve uptake of patient-facing digital health tools and platforms.

Discharge Plan to Promote Patient Safety and Shared Decision Making by a Multidisciplinary Team of Healthcare Professionals in a Respiratory Unit

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often require frequent hospitalization due to worsening symptoms. Preventing prolonged hospital stays and readmission becomes a challenge for healthcare professionals treating patients with COPD. Although the integration of health and social care supports greater collaboration and enhanced patient care, organizational structure and poor leadership may hinder the implementation of patient-oriented goals. This paper presents a case of a 64-year-old chronic smoker with severe COPD who was to be discharged on long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT). It also highlights the healthcare decisions made to ensure the patient’s safety at home and further provides a long-lasting solution to the existing medical and social needs. The goal was accomplished through a discharge plan that reflects multidisciplinary working, efficient leadership, and change management using Havelock’s theory. While COPD is characterized by frequent exacerbation and hospital readmission, it was emphasized that most failed discharges could be attributed to bureaucratic organizational workflow which might not be in the patient’s best interest. It was further demonstrated that healthcare professionals are likely to miss the window of opportunity to apply innovative and long-lasting solutions to the patient’s health condition in an attempt to remedy the immediate symptoms of COPD.

Artificial Intelligence Can Improve Patient Management at the Time of a Pandemic: The Role of Voice Technology.

Artificial intelligence–driven voice technology deployed on mobile phones and smart speakers has the potential to improve patient management and organizational workflow. Voice chatbots have been already implemented in health care–leveraging innovative telehealth solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. They allow for automatic acute care triaging and chronic disease management, including remote monitoring, preventive care, patient intake, and referral assistance. This paper focuses on the current clinical needs and applications of artificial intelligence–driven voice chatbots to drive operational effectiveness and improve patient experience and outcomes.

Impact of Stroke Call on Career Satisfaction and Burnout for Academic Neurointerventionalists: A Grounded Theory Model

The demand of thrombectomy treatment for acute ischemic stroke increased dramatically in the United States after the publication of 5 pivotal trials in 2015. The impact of call burden on career satisfaction and burnout in neurointerventionalists has not been explored. A qualitative approach was chosen to obtain rich, detailed accounts of physician experiences. From July 2018 to July 2019, we conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews (mean duration, 43 minutes) with 16 academic neurointerventionalists from various institutions in the United States. Participants were chosen from the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery to include multiple specialties, career stages, and geographic locations. Key themes/subthemes were organized into a conceptual model and shown by exemplary quotes. Participants report a diverse range of previously uncharacterized ways in which stroke call responsibilities affect their lives. Unrealistic performance expectations, discipline-based inequalities, poor organizational workflow, limited opportunities for growth and advancement, and lack of control over call conditions are some of the key themes identified. Participants describe a need for interventions that address both the issues of workload stress (i.e., resources for stroke call and administrative work) and their ability to accomplish professional goals (i.e., flexible work arrangements, leadership autonomy support, and organizational value congruence). The burden of stroke call has strong implications for career satisfaction and burnout in neurointerventionalists. This model can be used by hospitals, departments, and physician groups to better conceptualize conditions that facilitate burnout and attrition. Changes to hospital management practices and culture may be the most productive focal areas for intervention.

МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЕ ПРОЦЕССА СГОРАНИЯ В ДИЗЕЛЬНОМ ДВИГАТЕЛЕ

The issues of combustion processes and the organization of the combustion workflow in diesel engines are relevant in view of the tightening of economic and environmental requirements for them. The problem of saving liquid fuels remains one of the most acute in the provision of fuel and energy resources. The development of highly efficient methods for organizing work processes when burning natural gas in a compressed or cryogenic state in the cylinders of internal combustion piston engines and determining ways to further reduce toxic emissions, increase fuel efficiency and reliability in promising gas engines is an urgent task. Mathematical modeling of liquid fuel combustion is a complex task, since it requires taking into account a large number of complex interrelated processes and phenomena. The article presents a simple 3-D model of cylinder diesel tractor engine D 144, the re- sults of numerical simulation of combustion of liquid and gaseous fuel in the cylinder of the diesel engine D-144. The article presents the results of modeling, including graphs of the dependence of nitrogen oxides, particles in outgoing gases, depending on the consumption of gaseous fuel in the form of pure methane. Additionally, tempe- rature and velocity contours are shown. The corresponding conclusions are made.

Total Value of Ownership and Overall Equipment Effectiveness analysis to evaluate the impact of automation on time and costs of therapeutic drug monitoring

Total Value of Ownership (TVO) and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) analysis are novel tools capable of monitoring and analyzing industrial processes by assessing the efficiency of the entire instrumental equipment and calculating instrument capacity utilization. Such integrated analysis, measuring quality indicators of the testing process, could also provide new perspectives and methodologies for the workflow organization of clinical laboratories. In this study, TVO and OEE were employed for the evaluation of two different configurations of a therapeutic drug monitoring sector, comparing the results obtained for immunosuppressant (ISD) and anti-epileptic drugs (AED) analysis as well as checking their quantitative performance in terms of limit of quantification, accuracy and precision. TVO analysis was performed for ISDs, including the Total Direct Labor Time, Total Cycle Time and Turnaround Time as well as cost of testing. Instruments’ performance and workload were assessed using OEE indicator, studying Availability, Performance and Quality factors. Total Cycle Time for a batch was 3.55 h, decreasing of 1.5 h in the new setting where personnel are engaged for 0.98 h, 25% of total testing time. The calculated cost per sample was 6.60 euro. Availability values were significantly higher for automated sample-handling system and ISDs analysis by LC-MS. Higher Performance values were obtained for LC-MS system for AED and other TDM. Quality values were >0.94 for all instruments. TVO and OEE proved to be applicable to clinical laboratory environment, quantifying benefits and costs of newly developed semi-automated therapeutic drug monitoring sector. This novel approach based on an integrated analysis may help activity planning and quality improvement and could be used in the future for benchmarking progress as a product/process comparison tool in other laboratory fields.

Evaluating and Improving the User Experience (UX) of Organization Workflow

Evaluating and Improving the User Experience (UX) of Organization Workflow

ORGANIZATION OF THE PRIMARY ACCOUNTING OF THE MANUFACTURING INVENTORIES AND THE FEATURES OF THEIR REFLECTION IN THE ACCOUNTING POLICY OF THE ENTERPRISE

The organization of the store manufacturing accounting was studied. The order of accounting policy formation of the enterprises in the organization of the store accounting. The main outstanding issues related to the store accounting are analyzed. Based on the research, it is established that the accounting is directed at management and accounting policy is one of the elements of the accounting system. So it must be considered in conjunction with management because in modern conditions the focus of accounting policy is the impact on the results of management, in other words making management decisions. In the result of the research the elements of accounting policy in the store accounting organization, information that should be specified in the Order on accounting policy of the enterprise are determined. But it should be noted that the above elements are not exhaustive and the company can expand and supplement them, taking into account their information and technological needs.&#x0D; Based on the analysis of the requisite composition of the primary documents for the accounting of the stocks’ movement and the study of the needs of the enterprise management system, the authors have developed and proposed a new document «Fuel usage statement». It has the following details such as the name of the enterprise, brand and the state number of the car, trailer, cargo information, customer information, fuel consumption, speedometer indicators at the beginning and at the end of the day, the units of measurement, positions, full name and the signatures of responsible persons. The proposed list of details is optimal and contains all the required as well as additional details that are elements of convenience. The usage of this document will ensure that information about the fuel consumption at the enterprise is received.&#x0D; It is necessary to ensure the efficient organization of workflow at all stages of store accounting, to approve the forms of primary documents of the store accounting for the rational organization of the store accounting at the enterprise. Scheduling fuel flow records covers the steps of creating, verifying, processing and storing a document. The created workflow schedule for fuel usage helps to improve the work of the accounting service, to reduce the cases of untimely documents processing, its loss, to reduce the deadlines for reporting, to increase the responsibility of employees at all levels for timely preparation, usage and processing.

COVID-19 pandemic preparedness and mitigation plan: Department of internal medicine experience from a clinical perspective

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, timing and preparedness for healthcare facilities are fundamental. This descriptive article narrates the Department of Internal Medicine at the College of Medicine and King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC) response before and during the COVID-19 outbreak by focusing on the preparedness and mitigation plans the department implemented for its clinical services. A COVID-19 taskforce was created to implement the pathways for healthcare workers' workflow organization, plan the effective use of isolation facilities and personal protective equipment, and enhance liaisons between departments in the medical city. Telehealth was utilized for outpatient services, and medications were delivered to patients via courier. Aerosol-generating procedures were conducted after thoroughly reviewing the clinical indications and time-related risks. Medical day unit services followed a strict multistep screening protocol and rescheduled nonurgent investigations and therapeutics when possible. The Department of Internal Medicine prepandemic preparedness helped significantly mitigate the pandemic impact on KSUMC. Prioritizing in-hospital clinical care according to the patients' conditions, full adherence to infection control measures, clear and efficient communication between departments, and utilizing telehealth were the key elements in maintaining state-of-the-art clinical care during the pandemic.

A Comprehensive Management Model Based on Modularization Thought

The general modular management theory takes organizational structure, work flow and product design and production as the core. In practice, it only pays attention to a certain aspect of modularization, and does not establish a comprehensive and unified modular management system. In this context, this article, guided by modular thinking, constructs a comprehensive management model based on modular thinking, and elaborates on the basic management structure of the modular management system. Meanwhile, this paper discusses the practical requirements of promoting modular management mode from the perspective of system, stability and moderation. It is hoped that this research can promote the theoretical innovation of comprehensive modular management and also provide a reference for the innovative practice of enterprise business models.

Analytical grouping of accounting for wages in health care institutions

An important factor in the uninterrupted work of healthcare is a modern and decent salary for medical personnel. This issue has become especially acute in coronavirus infection when all the problems that have accumulated in the field of healthcare have become especially urgent. There was a situation of a shortage of medical personnel and the need for round-the-clock work, which led to the issue of incentive and compensation payments. In this regard, accounting is one of the innovative links that ensure uninterrupted payments to employees of medical institutions. All facts of the economic activity of the institution must be documented. However, the existing set of documentation is not always able to ensure the prompt provision of information on payroll and incentive payments, even in the context of accounting automation. The article contains research of the workflow organization in terms of remuneration on the example of one of the medical institutions in the Omsk region. The study revealed the need to improve the accounting area as one of the ways of innovative development. The article proposes a new analytical accounting register, which allows presenting information on charges to medical personnel in the context of personnel categories and comparing analytical and synthetic accounting data in terms of the amounts of accrued wages. It is proposed to integrate the proposed document into the Sail Budget 7 program, the Payroll module, which will make the calculation process more convenient, less labor-intensive, and will allow the data transfer process to be carried out automatically.