Dynamic Capacity Management for Healthcare

While hospitals can learn from other industries, they cannot be improved or run like factories. With work that is more individualized than standardized, and limited control over volume and arrivals, even the leanest-minded hospital must recognize that healthcare systems are more dynamic than nearly any work environment. Written with the creativity needed to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of healthcare, Dynamic Capacity Management for Healthcare: Advanced Methods and Tools for Optimization presents the unique new tools, methodologies, and thinking required of healthcare systems that want to survive and thrive in a reduced reimbursement, higher-cost world. Demonstrating his approaches and recommendations through case studies specific to the complex issues of healthcare delivery, Pierce Story, a long-time and passionate healthcare operations expert, shows how hospitals and health systems can make leaps in performance in an environment in which both financial and human resources are shrinking as expectations for clinical perfection continue to rise. Through its unique approach to the dynamic management of complex care systems, this volume raises the bar for what is possible. This text presents an excellent opportunity for healthcare's change agents to meet the challenges and responsibilities of our day.

During his 20+ year healthcare career, Pierce Story has dealt with complex systems redesign, operations improvement, and performance analysis throughout hospitals and health systems. Pierce brings years of experience, unique perspectives, and new concepts to chronic disease management, capacity management, patient care, and health system redesign. Having developed several new applications and toolsets for the analysis and redesign of key clinical operations and patient care capacity strategies, Pierce understands the needs of the industry and the failings of traditional solutions. His vision is a new way of managing the provision of healthcare in the United States. Pierce has a Masters Degree in Health Policy and Management from the Muskie School of Public Policy in Portland, Maine, and is trained in both Six Sigma and Lean methodologies. Pierce is also a Diplomate, Past President, and active member of the Society for Health Systems, a volunteer organization of over 900 healthcare performance improvement specialists and engineers. He is a member of the Leadership Council of the American Society for Quality's Healthcare Division.

Prologue: Kenji's Story. Preface: Blasphemy. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Variability: Killer of Capacity. Interdependencies. DCAMM Introduction. Predictive Analytics. Demand Components: The Emergency Department. Surgical Services and DCAMM Analytics. Up Down Up: Creating a Systems View from a Component Perspective. Capacity Patterns and Analytics for DCAMM. Dynamic Resource Allocations, Dynamic Standardization, and Workload Analytics. A Word on Mandated Nurse Patient Ratios. Outlier Management and System Balance. Epilogue: Kenji's Story (Continued).