About

Starting Semester: Spring 2025
Assigned: No
Location: Atlanta

Shepherd Center

Client Profile

The Center of Assistive Technologies at the Shepherd Center provides comprehensive assistive technology interventions to persons with disabilities. CAT provides services in three main areas: adaptive driving, seating and mobility and access assistive technologies. Shepherd Center is consistently ranked among the top rehabilitation hospitals in the nation. It offers neurorehabilitation programs in spinal cord injury, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis and multi-trauma along with many specialty clinics to meet the needs of its patients.

Project Description

Client need

CAT serves both inpatients and outpatients. Outpatients are scheduled for appointments in advance, sometimes months in advance. CAT has been struggling with cancelled appointments and no-shows. This has an obvious impact on service efficiency, but also adversely impacts patients. Cancellations and no-shows adds to CAT’s wait list resulting in persons not being seen in as timely a manner as they would in a more efficient system.



Project Objective

The objective of this process is to study CAT’s current scheduling procedures within its Driving and Seating & Mobility services, evaluate the strategies used to minimize no-shows and cancellation, and devise an operational work plan to increase clinic efficiently.

Skills

Process improvement, problem solving, creative thinking