ARTICLES
Neil Goldfarb, the executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health, was a guest lecturer at the Temple University Fox School of Business Seminar Series. His presentation addressed the impact of value-based purchasing on healthcare providers and consumers.
A 291-bed children's hospital implements a process redesign initiative using the Design for Lean Six Sigma methodology to prepare for the electronic health record. The presentation describes the infrastructure, project plans, methodology and results to date.
A value stream activity mapping inpatient flow at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minnesota showed that patients, nurses, physicians, testing departments and therapists were unaware of the plan for the day for inpatients and often competed for patients' time. Through changing workflow and electronic information-sharing, collisions-of-care were reduced, interdepartmental coordination improved, and the patient experience was enhanced.
VIDEO
Vinod Sahney is recognized internationally for his leadership in applying industrial engineering to health systems. IIE honored his remarkable career this year with the Frank & Lillian Gilbreth Industrial Engineering Award. In his acceptance speech, he tells of how the Gilbreths were the first to champion process improvement work in hospitals and challenges IEs to make modern management practices the standard in healthcare organizations. Sahney, who helped found IIE’s Society for Health Systems, recently retired from BCBS of Massachusetts.