Business Processes

This is the one area where new and established businesses fail.  The implications of getting this wrong could be catastrophic on the business as either the costs are too high within the business or conversely the failure rate is high and therefore the business recieves a poor regulatory rating or struggles to win new business.

The business must have a clear strategy and business processes that support the operations, as a regulated business it must carry out the duties underpinned by comprehensive policies.

For a business to tender and win government contracts it is mandatory that all policies can be provided on request, they have been updated regularly and are compliant with legislation. In addition the business will have to be able to demonstrate through method statements how they deal with incidents or referrals and the processes underpinning the business.

One of the starting points with developing business processes within Health and Social Care is the Management Controls and Evidence Based recording of activities. Regular management meetings should be minuted and have clear assignment of actions against an owner. Documented with outcome and deadline for completion. Getting the structures right at the management team level makes it far easier to cascade down governance and evidence based capturing with the teams.

Business process should be clearly documented, often as part of the associated policy, and they should be lean in nature and logically aligned to activities undertaken.