Many of our colleagues think flowcharting is an invaluable tools we should be teaching in OM. I agree, and every semester I show the video Process Analysis at Arnold Palmer Hospital (7 min.).
APH believes that if a process takes place more than one time, it should be documented and flowcharted. There is even a staffer shown in the film, Diane Bowles, with the job title “Clinical Practice Improvement Consultant”, whose full-time work is charting scores of processes.
After I show the video in class, I assign small teams to flowchart the process of maternity patients moving through the hospital (see the video case at the end of Chapter 7). The Solutions Manual shows one possible chart. When you show the video, ask the students about the pre-registration function, how it can be used to streamline the operation, and why pregnant women benefit from it.
The key is that continuous improvement helps both patient and hospital function/efficiency.