Description
By one estimate, the U.S. wastes $480 billion yearly on healthcare expenditures that don’t make stronger care. Worse, as a result of faulty systems – not group of workers – as much as 98,000 people die yearly as a result of preventable medical errors – and that doesn’t count non-terminal events such as hospital-acquired infections. In Hospital Operations, two leading operations management experts and four senior physicians demonstrate the right way to apply new OM advances to substantially make stronger any hospital’s operational, clinical, and financial performance. Replete with examples, this bookshows the right way to diagram hospital flows, trace interconnections, and optimize flows for better performance. Readers will find specific guidance on bettering emergency departments, operating rooms, hospital floors, and diagnostic units; and successfully applying metrics. Coverage includes: reducing ER overcrowding and enhancing patient safety…bettering OR scheduling, enhancing organizational learning, and responding to surgeons and other stakeholders… bettering bed availability, optimizing nurse schedules, and creating more seamless patient handoffs… reducing lab turnaround time, bettering imaging responsiveness, and decreasing lab errors…successfully applying the right metrics for each and every facet of hospital performance. The authors conclude by previewing the “Hospital of the Future,” addressing issues ranging from prevention and self-care to the evolution of technology and evidence-based medicine.