Journal of healthcare resource management最新文献

About 8,000 visitors each day are treated to the serene beauty of a four-story, sky-lit atrium, decorated with maple and cherrywood walls, flowering plants, towering evergreens, two fountains, and river-patterned porcelain tile that flows along the entryway. This is the entrance to Genesys Regional Medical Center-Health Park in Grand Blanc, Mich., often mistaken for a hotel. When designing the new 379-bed inpatient hospital, Genesys envisioned a facility that reflected a peaceful, comforting, homelike setting for patients and visitors. This vision, inspired by the spiritual values of the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Genesys sponsors, is now a reality. Having a vision and making it happen, however, was no small undertaking, says author Mark Harris of Genesys Health System. The labor-intensive, evolutionary process took several years and thousands of people. In this article, Harris describes many of the building project considerations involved in designing a hospital of the future.

Over the past several years this journal has published numerous articles on the merits and benefits of effective resource management. Independently, these articles have supported the value of effective supply and materials management, management engineering and system restructuring, and clinical resource management in being able to save healthcare dollars by designing and injecting efficiencies into the healthcare delivery system. While most of these resource management activities have utilized very similar strategies (see Table 1 "Tools For Improvement"), much of the process revision and progress has remained within the walls of their own individual disciplines. Any widescale attempts to try to fully integrate all of these activities have been hampered by the intricacies of trying to mix apples and oranges. Despite these individual departmental gains, the challenge to conserve healthcare costs continues to permeate throughout all levels of the organization, and institutions are finally beginning to recognize the added value of merging these activities into a more centralized coordinated approach to resource management. Presented is a discussion on the potential value of developing a well-focused, integrated resource management program.

There have been numerous articles written in detail regarding industrial-based supplier certification programs. These programs generally concentrate on suppliers of raw materials. After reviewing them, it is difficult to visualize how these programs could support the ambulatory or inpatient operations of a healthcare institution. The University of Maryland Medical Center, a 747-bed teaching hospital in Baltimore, took on the challenge to adapt the supplier certification program to support its healthcare institution. After months of struggle, a program emerged by expanding the Medical Center's current process management philosophy, to include its suppliers. Documentation from the program developed by the Medical Center indicates the level of supplier support has increased. Through this certification program, the supplier is aware of the Medical Center's expectations and needs. In turn, the Medical Center has become aware of how its internal processes can hinder the supplier's operation. The supplier certification program has provided a valuable communication conduit. This article covers a brief summation of the industrial-based supplier certification program and how the University of Maryland Medical Center has adapted the program to support all its operations.