SUMMARY
Business Process Management is one of the practices most used in health sector in the last decades, for it is an appropriate tool to reach higher levels of patient's satisfaction and a more effective and efficient care service. One of its most significant elements is the business process improvement; the introduction of its tools, once scarcely acknowledged, is gaining more recognition in health care organizations. This paper illustrates the design of a methodology for health care processes management and improvement based on a systemic, holistic and integral approach, along with the practical application of such tools in a clinical-surgical hospital, which represents the main results of a theoretical and conceptual analysis of business process management and continuous improvement.