Q:  How is the Improving Flow Through Acute Care Settings Learning and Innovation Community similar to or different from this program?

A:  There are several differences between the Flow Community and the Managing Hospital Operations (MHO) program, such as:

• The MHO program provides participants with in-depth analysis of patient flow, cost of care, staffing, and quality of care issues and their mutual impact. Although very practically oriented, the MHO program provides participants with the theoretical background sufficient to find hospital-specific solutions for hospital-specific problems.
• The Flow Community provides participants with important flow findings and tools in an "all-teach all-learn" environment. Participants in the MHO program would essentially become their organization’s "internal hospital consultant."
• The Flow Community covers a broad spectrum of the flow results achieved by hospitals across the country. It provides the opportunity to communicate with many hospitals, all with a main interest in improving patient flow, while MHO program participants are likely to have multiple interests (e.g., flow, quality of care, staffing, etc.). 

Q:  I'm a physician and I have an MBA with an emphasis in service management and operations management. Would this program still pertain to me?

A:  Without knowing a person’s particular expertise, it is difficult to answer specifically. That said, learning how to apply these concepts in health care is very different than a standard MBA program. For example, overbooking in lab testing — applying operations management principles to this health care example rather than to a business example would be addressed very differently.

Q:  What would some of the successful outcomes be? What would I be measuring? How will I be able to demonstrate success when I'm done?

A:  To measure success, you would measure whether patient throughput has increased from implementing these applications. If there is an increase in revenue or in patient throughput (which is ultimately revenue), this demonstrates success.

Another measure is nurse staffing. For example, at Boston Medical Center the reduction in nurse hours per patient day was 30 minutes.

A third measure is ED overcrowding. What is my organization's waiting time for the ED?

Surgical revenue is an important part of overall hospital revenue, so surgical throughput could be measured.