Improvement of breast cancer patient pathway using EUSOMA standards and European guidelines

Queues in hospitals are directly affecting the quality of human life, which should have priority compared to other types of queues. The aim of this paper is to design a future value stream map of the system and patient pathway in terms of quality improvement in order to decrease the non-value added activities for breast cancer patients, doctors and nurses for a radiology unit in a Training and Research University Hospital based in Kocaeli, Turkey. Nowadays, the increased demand versus insufficient sources affect healthcare services due to poor quality with long queues during the diagnosis and treatment processes. For this paper, data were collected from personal observations, information technologies units and authorized employees. Moreover, data tracking and keeping systems are too poor for revealing the current situation. This paper provides an example of a current and future value stream map showing step by step where the bottlenecks are and how it can be improved and what specific benefits it will bring to the healthcare system. In consideration of all these outcomes, it is highly suggested that the hospital apply European Guidelines for quality assurance in breast cancer screening and diagnosis together with the mentioned above improvement suggestions using lean applications.