The cause of complications: understanding the relation between post-operative complications and the systems and processes of a hospital by means of an influence diagram

Care for the patient is the core process of hospital care. Hospitals are becoming ever more complex and it is increasingly difficult to have a good overview of the hospital to ensure the quality of care. Among others, additional quality assurance and validation is required to remain in control of the situation. To acquire insight into the most important parameters in patient care, an influence diagram is made of the patient treatment process in the operating room. The outcome of this approach is an extensive diagram, giving an overview of the influences on post-operative complications in a hospital. Based on this, a concise abstraction is made, in which the occurrence of post-operative complications is summarized using a simple system diagram. The main challenges within the current system are identified, and will be used for further research. Preliminary solutions follow from the influence diagram: the essential parameters and the complex interrelations between these parameters are described.