Society for Health Systems

NEWS

Improve quality and efficiency at your healthcare facility

Learn proven methods to mend healthcare operations at the IIE Best Practices in Lean & Six Sigma Applied to Healthcare event. Sponsored by the Georgia Hospital Association and the Society for Health Systems, the one-day conference features experienced speakers from top organizations and facilities such as Wellstar, John C. Lincoln Health Network, Children's Medical Center, Hoag Memorial Hospital, Meadows Regional Medical Center and Grady Memorial Hospital. It will be held Oct. 29 at the Georgia International Convention Center near the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The convenient one-day format allows you to get the lean and Six Sigma solutions you need and get right back to work to apply them. Go to www.iienet.org/lsshealthcare and register today!

SHS Healthcare Systems Improvement Conference Returns to New Orleans for 2013

The Society for Health Systems Annual Conference will be held the first week of March 2013 in New Orleans, immediately preceding the HIMSS Annual Conference. The Society for Health Systems will be celebrating its 25th year anniversary in 2013, and the conference will have many special celebrations and presentations. A call for abstracts will be made this summer, so start thinking about what you are interested in presenting! The conference will feature topics such as lean six sigma, patient flow, quality, leadership and management, change management, human factors, information technology and applied research. We hope you will plan to join us!

New book promotes lean efficiency in hospital buildings

Lean-Led Hospital Design describes how, from the earliest possible concept phase, Lean ideas and processes can improve the efficiency of hospital design, and support better and better processes.

More about the book

Are you an IE graduate? Are you an IE new to Healthcare?

Introduction to IE in Healthcare

Authored by Ron McDade and Kevin Martin, Tools and Content Committee

Key points:

Industrial engineering applications in healthcare are broad and far-reaching.
Healthcare is a complex and ever-changing industry that can be daunting to IEs new to the field.

This presentation is intended to provide an introduction to healthcare for new IE graduates, IEs new to healthcare, and hospital administrators unfamiliar with industrial engineering and what it has to offer healthcare improvement. The presentation provides the following: (1) an overview of healthcare quality and costs; (2) an overview of hospitals and hospital operations; (3) an overview of the history of IEs in healthcare and emerging opportunities; and (4) a glimpse at the projected future of healthcare.

SHS BLOG

Announcing NEW SHS Blog website

SHS has launched a new blog website: http://shsblog.org/. Posts will cover the whole range of industrial and systems engineering methodologies as they apply to healthcare systems. If there's something in particular you'd like us to write about, please add a comment here. Recent posts include: Project Echo, which describes and analyzes an innovative approach to delivering specialist care to rural and under served populations; a post about telemedicine in South Africa, which is the first of a series about IEs working in healthcare in South Africa; and a dialog about the pros and cons of single-payer healthcare.

CO-SPONSORED CONFERENCES

SEMINARS | WEBINARS

ARTICLES

Value-based purchasing of health benefits: strategies and outcomes

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.

Electronic Health Record Implementation: Design for Lean Six Sigma

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.

Keeping Everyone Informed: Scheduling inpatient testing and therapy appointments

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

Prescription for good health systems

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.

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