ABSTRACT
The healthcare “system” is a complex one, involving many individuals, forms, multiple steps, and multiple tasks in order to complete a service for an individual patient—an office visit, a diagnostic test, a treatment, and so on. The more steps and more people involved in something, the longer it takes to complete, the more the entire process costs, and the higher the risk of an error—or multiple errors. The “simplest” would be to look at a routine office visit. We will be surprised how complex a seemingly simple service is. Begin our mapping exercise at the very beginning—when a patient contacts the practice to schedule an appointment. Make sure that we capture every single action that occurs—every form, every verbal conversation, every memo, every email, every computer system entry, and so on.
