What is Workflow Analysis?
Published: 1/22/26
Workflow analysis in healthcare is the process of studying how clinical and operational work actually happens—across people, systems, and environments—to improve efficiency, safety, and patient care.
Rather than focusing on policies or ideal-state diagrams, healthcare workflow analysis examines real-world practice:
- How clinicians, nurses, and staff complete tasks during a normal shift
- How information flows between people and systems (EHRs, devices, scheduling tools)
- Where decisions, handoffs, and interruptions occur How staff adapt when systems don’t match clinical reality
Why Workflow Analysis Matters in Healthcare
When healthcare workflows are poorly understood, technology can unintentionally create friction. Documentation takes longer, workarounds increase, and clinician frustration grows—often at the expense of patient care. Effective workflow analysis helps organizations:
- Reduce inefficiencies and unnecessary steps
- Identify safety risks before they cause harm
- Improve EHR usability and clinical adoption
- Design workflows that support clinicians instead of slowing them down
- Align operational processes with how care is actually delivered
Common Reasons Workflow Analysis Fails in Healthcare
Despite good intentions, workflow analysis often falls short. Here’s why:
- Observing the “Ideal” Instead of the Real Staff may demonstrate how a workflow should work rather than how it actually works, especially when leadership is present. This hides workarounds, pain points, and inefficiencies.
- Ignoring Frontline Voices Workflows designed without input from nurses, physicians, and support staff often miss critical nuances. The people doing the work understand the flow better than any diagram ever could.
- Focusing Only on Technology Healthcare workflows don’t live inside the EHR alone. They span physical space, human judgment, interruptions, and emotional labor. Ignoring these elements leads to incomplete analysis.
- Treating Workflow as Static Clinical workflows evolve constantly. A workflow that works today may break tomorrow due to staffing changes, policy updates, or system upgrades.
What Effective Workflow Analysis Looks Like
Workflow analysis in healthcare is:
- Observational: grounded in real clinical environments
- Collaborative: built with frontline staff, not for them
- Iterative: evisited and refined over time
- Context-aware: mindful of patient acuity, staffing, and cognitive load.
Final Thought
Healthcare doesn’t fail because clinicians resist change. It fails when systems are built without understanding how care truly happens. Workflow analysis is how we design smarter, safer, more humane healthcare systems—starting with reality.