ABSTRACT
Leaders recognise the value in gaining a deeper and broader understanding of the problem areas and be able to communicate this to others. The delivery of health care to our patients is complex and could be described as a web of different internal and external processes that interface with each other, often seemingly with little co-ordination. In general practice, they work with a wide range of processes including: repeat prescribing, patients accessing appointments and referrals. Process mapping helps a team gain a shared understanding and this has a positive impact on how well people engage with the improvement plan. Just creating the map helps to change attitudes and the process mapping exercise therefore serves two purposes, both helping us to understand the problem areas and engaging the team in the improvement process. This tool merely formalises this process, adding some numerical values to the pros and cons in an attempt to achieve consensus about whether to go ahead or not.
