Mapping Turnaround Times to a Generic Timeline
Author Information
Author(s): Breil Bernhard, Fritz Fleur, Thiemann Volker, Dugas Martin
Primary Institution: Institute of Medical Informatics, University of Münster
Hypothesis
How can different definitions of turnaround times in clinical domains be standardized and mapped to a generic timeline?
Conclusion
Using turnaround times to benchmark clinical workflows is still difficult, because even within the same clinical domain many different definitions exist.
Supporting Evidence
- More than 1000 articles were analyzed, resulting in 122 papers with 162 turnaround time definitions identified.
- A generic timeline was constructed using preferred terms derived from the identified definitions.
- 15 standard terms for turnaround time definitions were proposed based on the analysis.
Takeaway
This study looked at how hospitals define turnaround times for different processes, and found that there are many different definitions that make it hard to compare them.
Methodology
A systematic review of literature was conducted using Pubmed queries and manual reviews of bibliographies, focusing on studies with precise definitions of turnaround times.
Limitations
The study did not consider the context and underlying research questions of the respective articles in detail.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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