Multiskilling — Re-Engineering Work Process

Abstract

Many North American companies have recognized the need to re-engineer their core processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in cost, service and efficiency. In fact, it is estimated that U.S. companies alone will spend millions on business re-engineering projects this year. But change experts say that most re-engineering is in name only, cautiously tackling only one process or department at a time. Even fewer hospitals have attempted this magnitude of change.

Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Science Centre is the first institution of its size in Canada to embark on a multifaceted re-engineering strategy toward a model of patient focused care. The following is an overview of Sunnybrook's experience with the first of these strategies: multiskilling service workers. The concept of multiskilling provides for a focus on redesigning job classifications to broaden the scope of responsibility. For Sunnybrook, this entailed the amalgamation of six service positions — unit aide, health care aide, dietary aide, orderly, porter, housekeeper and attendant into one service assistant position.