About

Starting Semester: Spring 2024
Assigned: Yes
Location: Atlanta

Emory Healthcare

Client Profile

Emory Healthcare is a not-for-profit health system in the metropolitan Atlanta area. Comprised of several hospitals and the Emory Clinic and other medical practice plans, it offers comprehensive services in Cancer, Heart and Vascular, Brain Health, Transplant, Women's Health, Musculoskeletal, Primary Care, and more. As of May, 2023 Emory University Hospital Midtown (EUHM) is home to a new cancer facility: Winship at Emory Midtown, where patients receive services across multiple settings, sub-specialties, and care modalities, all in the same place.

Project Description

Typical outpatient cancer services are diverse: surgery, radiation, medical treatment, general care management, laboratory, imaging. Most often these occur in disparate locations, often across different organizations or health systems. They oblige patients to navigate various service locations, even within a single facility, on a single day. The new Winship at Emory Midtown facility upholds the objective to bring services to patients wherever possible. Outpatient services are organized around a singular room/location, and patients need not travel or navigate, any more than they wish for convenience. The services encompass as many as possible of the multiple (otherwise diverse) disciplines applicable to patients' needs (e.g. surgery, medicine, etc.). Further, inpatient services in the same building occupy floors that alternate with the outpatient services, enabling care that leverages continuity across settings, by a team that is less diverse and more consistent - closer.

Such a design calls for outpatient visit-specific capacity requirements, and patient schedule parameters, that differ from the conventional models where patients move from station to station (e.g. lab, office, treatment room) within a facility.

Since initial design, programming of the building has changed to address the results of recruitment of new physicians, nurses, etc. In addition, the operation needs to maintain accurate and appropriate space allocation, visit duration, and schedule design in order to effectively manage a demand profile different from the original design.

This project will analyze and confirm space needs and schedule design by patient type and provider type, allowing for optimal access by new patients to multidisciplinary professional services for various cancer types, and customized treatment in one place. To the extent such plans have already been laid or are being laid, the project will support and facilitate implementation planning and execution: staffing plans, job aids and management/decision tools.

Skills

detailed meta-analysis with multiple variables and constraints
space planning
complex demand (patient) schedule design
simulation modeling
resource and staff planning
ROI analysis
metric/dashboard recommendations and development.