Organizing and Managing Patient Flows
Full course description
Ageing of the population, rising costs of healthcare, growing expectations of service users regarding the quality of care, as well as the introduction of market competition have driven the healthcare organizations to critically assess and improve their processes of care delivery. It is essential to balance supply and demand in order to increase the efficiency of the processes, i.e. to offer good care and treatments for reduced costs. To enable this, organizational, managerial and informational actions can be considered. This unit argues that a holistic understanding is required of three interconnected key topics: a) the importance of a focus on the care delivery process (the basics and importance of flow), b) the organizational features of that process (production structure of the flow) and c) the managerial features of that process (control structure of the flow). The unit offers the students the opportunity to study these three interconnected topics from two conceptual perspectives: Socio-technical and Lean thinking. Healthcare organizations are currently interested in the possibilities of applying these perspectives and their principles, tools and techniques to care delivery processes. This unit presents the main characteristics of both perspectives and critically investigates the possibilities of using them in healthcare.
Course objectives
The unit aims to enable students to analyze the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of organizing, managing and information provision of/for care delivery processes and to develop solutions to the problems encountered in the organization and management of/for care delivery.
Recommended reading
Besides articles in scientific journals and conference proceedings, the following books will be used: - Achterbergh, J., & Vriens, D. (2010). Organizations. Springer - Hopp WJ, Spearman ML (2001). Factory Physics: foundations of manufacturing management. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.ˇ - Visser HM, van Goor AR (2006). Logistics: principles and practice. Groningen: Stenfert Kroese. - Garban M (2009). Lean Hospitals: improving quality, patient safety and employee satisfaction, Boca Raton [etc.], CRC Press. - Liker JK (2004) The Toyota Way: 14 management principles from the world?s greatest manufacturer. New York: McGraw-Hill. - Mohr, BJ & PJ van Amelsvoort ed. (2016), Co-Creating Humane And Innovative Organisations. Evolutions in the Practice And Perspective OfˇSocio-Technical System Design - Ronen, B., J.S. Pliskin, and S. Pass (2006). Focused Operations Management for Health Services Organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass - Vissers J, Beech R (2005). Health operations management : patient flow logistics in healthcare. London [etc.]: Routledge. - Vriens, D., & Achterbergh, J. (2011). Cybernetically sound organizational structures I: de Sitter's design theory. Kybernetes, 40(3/4), 405-424. - Womack JP, DT Jones (2003), Lean Thinking; banish waste and create wealth in your corporation. New York: Free Press.