Sunday, July 8, 2012

Dynamic Strategy – Practitioner – Facility Planning Can Improve Healthcare


In the article Facility Planning Can Improve Healthcare by Junell Scheeres, the author examines important factors that impact the building of a successful healthcare facility. Junell Scheeres is the president of LS2 Performances Solutions LLC and lean Six Sigma, master black belt with over 25 years of industrial engineering experience in improving healthcare in military, public and private sector. Based on her experience, the author declares that building a healthcare facility requires different consideration and planning compared to traditional buildings. She suggests that proper planning and engineering of a healthcare facility could improve the healthcare system.  

Building a healthcare facility requires extensive planning. Hence, analytics and simulation studies need to be conducted along with implementing project management. Also, efficient process tools, information technology and layout design all play a vital role in building a sufficient healthcare facility. Healthcare is an important aspect of our society. It caters to the needs of millions of people, and provides thousands of jobs. Proper healthcare facility is crucial to individuals, families, the government and society as a whole. Thus, the planning and structure of healthcare facility is very important.

Based on the article, part of the analytics and simulations studies requires the study of demography. Factors such as age, gender, race, occupation, and income help determine the demands of the healthcare facility. Furthermore, details such as competition, market share, and insurance coverage can also influence the demand. Project management synchronizes the transition by planning, scheduling and monitoring the process. Process tools optimize the care delivery process. For instance, expertise in Six Sigma tools can drive quality and efficient workflow. Information technology supports the functionality and growth of the facility and delivers technical solutions to meet the business needs.  The layout and architectural element of the healthcare facility ensures efficient construction and placement of resources. 

All of these implications require adoptability and strong management to create and operate the healthcare facility. Management must oversee the changes and new routine of the facility and also ensure minimum productivity loss. Additionally, the author believes health system engineers play a vital role in assisting with managing the change and adding value to the process.


4 comments:

  1. I agree Beenish healthcare facilities are extremely important.I'm glad to hear we have people like Junell Scheeres that can provide their extensive knowledge to ensure that we have proper healthcare facilities. I want to know that my local hospital is capable of providing effective services and the facilities are capable to handle the demand.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beenish,

    I thnk it's great that this article focuses on a physical part of healthcare, besides the people it treats of course, instead of just policies and pushing paper around. Though that is a neccessary factor, it would be very beneficial to have a stream lined facility to take care and improve on process and policies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Healthcare facility plays a very important role in the healthcare system in general. Planning and building healthcare facility is engineering works, thus create lost of job. I think government spending on healthcare is the core component of your topic. Once we have budget for it, people will know how to plan and build healthcare facilities. The point is how we have money for healthcare in this economic downturn. Especially, the government budget for spending in Texas in 2013 will be cut up to one billion. That will impact on the healthcare system in our state.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree this is an important matter. Increasing the effectiveness of healthcare facilities is an important matter. But sometimes budgets get in the way of that. Like Tuan stated, government budget will be cut next year, which does not look good.

    ReplyDelete