The evolution and integration of a patient-centric mapping tool (patient journey value mapping) in continuous quality improvement

The need to improve a healthcare system that too frequently fails to deliver benefits of care, even resulting in harm to patients, has been well established. The resulting era of quality improvement has aimed to improve the delivery of care by increasing quality while reducing cost. One approach to improving how healthcare is delivered is the application of Lean management strategies. Despite widespread investment in Lean approaches to improve healthcare delivery, evidence supports a deficiency of this approach to improve patient satisfaction with care. Identifiable operational tension between quality improvement efforts designed to streamline care processes and those targeting improvement of the patient care experience existed. We set out to address this deficiency by embedding the patient experience into improvement efforts through the introduction of a patient-centric value stream mapping approach.