Healthcare Systems Engineering

The growth of Service in the ever-evolving Global economy has brought much needed attention to Service Science and Service Systems Engineering (SSE). The primary areas of research include the development of formal methodologies for understanding end-user (customer) interactions with enterprises from socio-economic and technological perspective for value co-creation and productivity improvements. Once such domain is Healthcare, where it requires trans-disciplinary collaborations between society, science, enterprises and engineering to customize and personalize customer needs, taking a disciplined and systemic approach among different stakeholders and resources to take an end-user (service oriented customer-centric) approach in the design and delivery of the service.

RIMES is actively involved with University medical center in El Paso, Texas to manage and improve emergency room services using various systems engineering and interdisciplinary methodologies. RIMES and TMAC enabled University Medical Center, El Paso Texas to implement two key workflow improvements to improve hospital throughput and improve Emergency Department (ED) throughput. LEAN strategies were implemented throughout hospital inpatient units to improve hospital performance and throughput, improve average inpatient discharge times and ultimately facilitate the admission process for the ED. A Hospitalist program was implemented to expedite the admission process from the ED for medicine patients and reduce ED Length of Stay and improve ED throughput. Both projects have identified workflow improvements, established process for identification areas for improvement, and established baseline metrics to monitor performance. ED throughput is a hospital-wide problem. Improvement in hospital throughput will lead to improved ED throughput.

Cares Act: Dashboard for Manufacturing Capabilities during COVID-19

This project creates a centralized information source for stakeholders, businesses, and communities to identify and locate local manufacturers who can adapt their facilities to produce personal protective equipment required for the community in light of the existing pandemic.

Grant Information: https://expertise.utep.edu/node/50778