CIO | A Picture Can Say a Thousand Words

Inefficient delivery of patient care is a significant cause of rising health care costs. Traditional methods of documenting complex processes and workflows do not translate well into the health care setting. Fortunately, an innovative hospital employee, Vinh Ton, has come up with a solution that he submitted to our Innovation Lab in Newport Beach, Calif.

Ton created “VisuFlow,” a health care process and workflow diagramming tool that consists of a collection of health care-centric stencils and templates for use in Microsoft® Visio®. VisuFlow augments Visio® mapping capabilities and helps hospital staff simplify complex processes using visual flowcharts. The stencils represent the people, places, and equipment across the health care continuum, including patient, doctor, nurse, administrator, clinic building, wheelchair, and gurney. This tool is intended to ease the task of documenting and communicating health care operations to a diverse audience. The stencils are simple to install and can be used by all levels of Visio® users. VisuFlow diagrams can be displayed on computers, tablets, and big screens for easy viewing and access.  More…