“We have to bring the science of management back into health care.”

— Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

“Hospital chief executive officers should adopt enterprise-wide operations management and related strategies to improve the quality and efficiency of emergency care.”

“By applying variability methodology, queuing theory and the I/T/O model, hospitals can identify and eliminate many of the patient flow impediments caused by operational inefficiencies.”

— Institute of Medicine report, "Hospital-Based Emergency Care: At the Breaking Point"

 Download the Managing Hospital Operations program brochure

The Challenge

From bottlenecks to backlog, hospitals everywhere face the same business challenges. These problems exhaust resources, hinder improvement, and compromise customer satisfaction. But unlike other industries such as transportation, banking and food services, many health care leaders have failed to capitalize on one powerful, fundamental notion: smarter management is not costly management.

The June 2006 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, "Hospital-Based Emergency Care: At the Breaking Point," underscores the importance of the critical challenges faced by emergency departments in the United States, including overcrowding, ambulance diversions, and inefficient patient flow and hospital operations. Among the IOM recommendations to improve hospital emergency care are the following:

• Hospitals should adopt system-wide operations management principles to improve the quality and efficiency of care.
• Training in operations management for hospitals should be promoted by professional associations, accrediting organizations, and others.
• The Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should develop standards to eliminate ED crowding, boarding, and diversion.

The Managing Hospital Operations Program Can Help 

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has developed a five-month Managing Hospital Operations program for executives, managers, and clinicians that will offer the kind of rigorous, science-based operations training — made applicable to health care — that has been largely unavailable to health care professionals.

Taught by Eugene Litvak, PhD, one of the nation's leading thinkers on hospital operations redesign, this intensive five-month program uses academic case studies and observation projects to guide participants through an in-depth examination of effective operational management.

A National Success Story

By applying variability methodology, developed by Dr. Eugene Litvak and his colleagues, alongside other operations management principles, Boston Medical Center transformed its operations and reduced ambulance diversions by 20%, and last-minute postponement of elective surgeries by 99.5%. [Boston Medical Center, Annual Report 2004]

Watch the interview with Dr. Litvak on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer featuring the extraordinary story of how he helped Boston Medical Center transform their emergency department.

 Listen to an informational call about the Managing Hospital Operations program with faculty Eugene Litvak, PhD.

Do you have more questions about the program? Be sure to click on the "Frequently Asked Questions" tab for more information.