Why CHOT

The motivation for CHOT is clear. Healthcare is the largest industry in the United States yet riddled with system problems, error, and inefficiency – costing over $2.3 trillion per year, comprising 16-18% of our gross domestic product, and increasing steadily at twice the rate of inflation. Numerous studies agree that roughly 30% of all U.S. healthcare costs are attributable to inefficient poorly designed processes, prompting the National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and numerous others to advocate much greater application of systems engineering, operations research, management science, and related methods, and for greater partnering between academia and hospitals in this activity. Each IOM dimension of the care system – efficiency, effectiveness, safety, access, equity, patient-centered – can be improved by systems engineering, with examples including patient flow, appointment and staff scheduling, facility layout, disease screening, treatment optimization, regional planning, and pandemic response problems. See the below links for example applications.

 

Commonwealth Fund Study of National Healthcare Systems
IOM Dimensions Australia Canada New Zealand United Kingdom United States
Safety 2.5 4 2.5 1 5
Patient-Centered 2 3 1 5 4
Access and Timeliness 2 5 1 4 3
Efficiency 1 4 2 3 5
Effectiveness 4.5 2.5 2.5 1 4.5
Equity 2 4 3 1 5
(1=best, 5=worst) Source: Davis, et al., The Commonwealth Fund, 2004-2009