Subject
Humans; United States; Cooperative Behavior; Interinstitutional Relations; Continuity of Patient Care; Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support; Home Care Services/organization & administration; Health Services Accessibility/organization & administration; Community Networks/organization & administration; Institutional Management Teams; Community Health Planning/organization & administration; Maps; Process Assessment (Health Care); Software Design; Systems Analysis
Description
Process mapping is a qualitative tool that allows service providers, policy makers, researchers, and other concerned stakeholders to get a "bird's eye view" of a home health care organizational network or a very focused, in-depth view of a component of such a network. It can be used to share knowledge about community resources directed at the older population, identify gaps in resource availability and access, and promote on-going collaborative interactions that encourage systemic policy reassessment and programmatic refinement. This article is a methodological description of process mapping, which explores its utility as a practice and research tool, illustrates its use in describing service-providing networks, and discusses some of the issues that are key to successfully using this methodology.
2003