Improving Processes for Health Care Delivery: Lessons from Johns Hopkins Medicine

This work prepares current and future managers and consultants focused on health care delivery systems to improve the efficiency of processes that deliver care. This material will help you manage capacity, improve patient flow, estimate process costs, and conduct experiments that lead to process improvement. Essential tools covered include process mapping and measurement, data collection and analysis, and the use of discrete event simulation as a tool for virtual experimentation and improvement. Tools are introduced with no assumption of prior training. Many examples of settings, problems, and solutions are presented, along with a generalized approach to process improvement that is specifically tailored to health care settings. Readings, exercises, and cases suitable for discussion or end-course projects are also provided. Writing is based on a decade of experience teaching at the MBA and MS levels, managing dozens of improvement processes, and a host of our prior scholarly publications, book chapters, and case studies.

Chester Chambers is Clinical Professor of Information Technology and Operations Management at Southern Methodist University where he manages the MS in Business Analytics and Supply Chain Management program. He is also Professor of Practice in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and served as Co-Director of its Medical Operations Research Core. His areas of research span Health Care Operations, Business Analytics, and Operations Strategy.

Maqbool Dada is a Professor in Operations Management & Business Analytics. He has a joint appointment in Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine, School of Medicine and and is a Co-Director of its Medical Operations Research Core. Professor Dada is a member of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and the Malone Center for Healthcare Engineering. He has expertise in the areas of operations management, health care operations, supply chain management and pricing models.

Dr. Kayode Williams is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, and Vice Chair for System Integration and Population Health in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine within the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School where he co-instructs on-site and field-based courses on Improving Healthcare Processes. He served as Director of the Community-based Pain Medicine Program from 2005-2009, Director of the Blaustein Pain Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 2009-2011, and Chief Medical Officer for the Priority Partners Managed Care Organization from 2020-2021. In addition he has served on the Board of Trustees for Howard County General Hospital and is on the Editorial Board of Pain Medicine.