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Health Informatics Unit
The University of Adelaide
SA 5005 Australia
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Sequence Diagram of the Pre-operative Assessment Clinic Workflow

Michael Edmonds

The diagram below shows the information flow between the parties involved in the pre-operative assessment clinic. It demonstrates the complexity of the process, and the dependency on many people and factors in the unit, in the wider hospital community, in the operating theatre and in the general community.

Complex pathways are more prone to error, having more points at which things can go wrong. This is amplified further when information is dependent on factors outside the unit. Long vertical gaps represent time delays, another factor that predisposes a process to error in the absence of a reminder or alerting system. As well as this, if a person is involved in an episodic manner, represented by several smaller rectangles with vertical gaps, this can lead to problems with continuity of care. In the case of the pre-operative screening clinic, the episodic activity of the anaesthetist demonstrates clearly that there may be several different anaesthetists involved in the care of the patient over time.