Process Mapping of a Regional Trauma System

This chapter describes the processes of care of the severely injured patient by using a “swim lanes” diagram to depict the sequence of care steps that govern patient flow, the agents that enact these steps, and the associated managerial and clinical tasks. Our objective was to create a clear and comprehensive narrative that would be useful to health care administrators tasked with operational decision-making in the oversight of a regionally integrated trauma system. As a representative illustration of modern trauma systems, we map the processes of trauma care occurring within Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCH) in the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada. We show how these steps influence associated processes, and which measures may best describe optimal system performance overall, and at key junctions.