title: Standard, routine and non-routine processes in health care.
abstract: Quality management methods have been introduced into health care with variable success. Industrial approaches, such as standardization, are not always applicable professional services, because of fundamental differences in conceptions of aims and the predictability of the results of action. Processes in health care can be classified into standard, routine and non-routine depending on the level of repetition and amount of variation, variety and uncertainty. Quality problems are different in each type: standard processes may produce deviations from targets, routines errors in classification, and non-routines failures in interpretation. Different management approaches for each type are discussed. A metaphor to assist discussion, The Broom, is introduced.
authors.affiliation: Quality Management Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lillrank
authors.forename: Matti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liukko
mesh_terms: D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D007049:Iatrogenic Disease; D019300:Medical Errors; D019365:Metaphor; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013597:Systems Analysis; D013598:Systems Theory; D017749:Total Quality Management