Process management in vascular medicine: Vague theory or possible in practice?

Many medical subspecialties are involved in the complex management of vascular diseases. Every discipline involved is subject to technological developments and changes. Many forms of treatment are carried out under pressure of time and are associated with relevant risks for the patients. For optimal patient care streamlined processes are important and the basis of effective and efficient treatment. Evolutionary process adjustments are the most common form of process management in vascular medicine. Successful management necessitates the involvement of all professions and specialized departments. The process construction begins with an analysis of the initial situation. Critical key factors are patient requirements, quality, costs and time. During the reorganization, process targets and measurement sizes must be elaborated and process alternatives must be drafted. A target process must be defined. Important process design principles include optimization, elimination, parallelization, integration, classification and outsourcing. Key points in process improvement are reduction and clarification of interfaces, reduction of complexity, minimization of duration of hospital stay and a clear assignment of roles and responsibilities. Check lists, decision trees, algorithms, guidelines, communication training and simulation are suitable tools for process management approaches to control of interfaces. To support successful implementation, coherent controlling and change management are necessary to prevent the organization falling back into its old behavior pattern. Process management tools are a powerful approach to improve patient care and economic performance of medical service providers in a sustainable way. © 2017, Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH.