Measurement plans for process flow improvement in services and health care

The discussion of performance measurement is often on a conceptual, not operational, level; advice on the operational and practical matters of obtaining data for process flow improvement is scarce.

We define a measurement plan and study four measurement study designs and corresponding methods and techniques, illustrating these with practical applications and solutions. The measurement plan is presented as a tool to organize the measurement systems for process flow improvement in services and health care.

Our study contributes terminology to the methodological development of improvement initiatives, and we present a tool for practitioners to organize the measurements in process flow improvement projects.