Client: Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic
Team: Shorjoe Bhattacharya and Harvey Hauw
Faculty Advisors: Drs. Barr, Bing Year: 2017
Documents: Presentation, Report
Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic, located in West Dallas, offers services in many different healthcare areas including pediatric care, behavioral health, and obstetrics. The focus of this project was in the obstetrics department, at which patient satisfaction was dropping due to long wait times leading to long appointment durations.
Our team was tasked with collecting time and motion data, mapping out current workflows of the clinic, running a simulation model, and analyzing the results. We collected data with a simple yet effective time and motion study where we asked the individual patients to log their times as they went station to station in the clinic. We also learned the workflows and layout of the clinic by talking to staff members at the location. This was data was used in a computer simulation model of the Obstetrics wing, developed using “MedModel” (specialty healthcare facilities simulation software). The simulation results revealed ways to reduce patient wait times to improve the patient experience at LBUCC.
Client: Methodist Dallas Medical Center
Team: Kyle Chester, Kristin Evanto, and Emily Gray
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Barr
Year: 2010
Documents: Final Report, Presentation
A “hub” of activity at MDMC is the Outpatient Services department. Outpatient Services exists to serve the needs of physicians and surgeons alike with routine x-rays, blood draws to test for Tuberculosis or other ailments, or diagnostics to assess patient health. Many patients who come to Outpatient Services are preparing for surgery and thus need to undergo preliminary screens such as blood draws and EKGs.
The focus of this project is the observation and analysis of the administrative and technical operations within the laboratory component of Outpatient Services. Outpatient Services aims to reduce its patient wait times throughout the entire duration of a patient’s stay in Outpatient Services. Management has expressed a desire to reduce patient wait times such that 95% of all patients wait less than 15 minutes for the Outpatient laboratory department. Read more…
Client: Achieve Healthcare Technologies
Team: Kristin March, Laura Bailey, Rachel Potter, Allison Bass
Faculty advisor: Barr Year: 2006
Documents: Final report (Word), final presentation (PPT)
Achieve Healthcare Technologies is the largest privately held provider of information system products and services to the long-term care industry. They serve clients across the U.S. and have long stood for higher quality and improved bottom lines for sub-acute long-term care, skilled nursing, assisted living, and continuing care retirement facilities and communities. Additionally, they have consistently led the industry in introducing new, innovative products and services. Read more…
Client: Baylor University Medical Center
Team: Amy Haller, Chris Johnson, Christian Puryear, Adam Saucedo
Faculty advisor: Dr. Richard Barr Year: 1996
Documents: Final report
Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) is a downtown-Dallas-based hospital with many satellite locations around the metroplex. In northeast Tarrant county, BIJMC acquired a small hospital in Grapevine. The Grapevine Hospital is a licensed 104-bed facility offering both in- and out-patient services. The Emergency Department (ED) at Baylor Grapevine is a six-bed unit catering primarily to urgent patients rather than trauma patients. Currently, this department is undergoing major changes in staffing and physical size. A new facility is under construction and will be completed in September 1996.
The administrators of the Grapevine Hospital recognized a potential problem and requested a tool to accurately simulate the work done in the ED. The purpose of this project is two-fold: 1) to determine the impact of staffing and/or facility changes on the efficiency of the ED, and 2) to gain a better understanding of the patient flow through the ED in order to reduce the occurrence of bottlenecks in the new facility. Consistently, the ED sees its largest number of patients on the weekend. On average, the ED services 110 patients each weekend.
Client: Baylor Heart Hospital
Team: Ashley Backwith, Steven Chapman, Ikechukwu Irozura, Kelly Nelson, Josh Urquhart
Faculty advisor: Dr. Richard Barr Year: 1998
Documents: Final report
Baylor University Medical Center, a five-hospital complex located just north of downtown Dallas, is one of the leading tertiary care teaching and referral centers in Texas and the Southwest. Our project focused on the planned heart hospital, which is to be built across Worth Street from the main hospital tower. This eight-story facility would be financed and run jointly by Baylor and three major cardiac physician groups. The third floor of the hospital would house the cathology and electrophysiology labs that provide diagnostic tests and host several non-emergency procedures.
A team consisting of Baylor employees and the Healthcare Environmental Design architectural firm has been working on the floor plan and design of this facility. Since the project involves multi-million dollar expenditures from both the physicians and the hospital, and tasks that are vital to the welfare of cardiology patients will be performed there, the two sponsors want to insure the facility can handle the expected patient flow in the new heart hospital. As a result, our team has been asked to collect data, run a simulation for the new facility, and analyze the results. Read more…
Client: Juliette Fowler Homes
Team: Sonia Amin
Faculty advisor: Dr. Richard Barr Year: 1997
Documents:
Juliette Fowler Homes is a non-profit organization that operates the Pearl Nordan Care Center, an intermediate nursing care facility for senior residents with a capacity of 120 beds. An activities program is scheduled for residents on a weekly basis. Activities at nursing homes are important because they build self-confidence and keep residents alert. A good activities program will, therefore, ultimately promote a sense of well- being for the elderly. In designing a program, social services directors must also consider the significance of state regulations.
The first main research procedure was gathering information on a sample of residents from different functioning levels. Independent ratings were calculated in five need areas according to individual preferences (surveys), attendance histories, and expert opinions: Next, an optimization model was designed to create an activity schedule that maximizes the needs met under a given set of conditions. The results of the resident sample analysis reveal some discrepancies among expert views, resident views, and the actual appeal of activities. The mathematical model reports show which needs are barely met, under-met, and well- met in typical activities programs.