HSA Faculty Serves on Panel with Director of the CDC
Carole Roan Gresenz, PhD, the Bette Jacobs Endowed Professor in the Department of Health Systems Administration, served on the panel, "How Improved Health and Longer Lives Drive Global Prosperity," on May 1 at the Milken Institute's 2013 Global Conference. Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is also a panelist. More information is available at http://www.milkeninstitute.org/events/gcprogram.taf?function=detail&EvID=4077&eventid=GC13.
Students Meet Health Policymakers on Capitol Hill
Undergraduate and graduate students from the Department of Health Systems Administration traveled to Capitol Hill in March to learn about health policy and legislation. The students met with various Senate, House, White House, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services staff representatives, as well as other nationally recognized policy experts, to discuss the health policy process, health reform, implementing reform, new legislation, and careers in health policy.
"As a program, we are fortunate to be in D.C. and have strong relationships with prominent policymakers,” says Jason Ormsby, PhD, MHA, MBA, assistant professor of health systems administration, who planned the experience.
Many of the speakers were responsible for designing, and now implementing, the Affordable Care Act, he says. For the full story visit http://nhs.georgetown.edu/372493.html.
MHSA Alumni Dinner & ACHE Congress
The Department of Health Systems Administration (HSA) sponsored a dinner in Chicago, Illinois, on March 12, 2013, for approximately 20 current students and alumni attending the ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership. The dinner is an annual event that provides HSA students, alumni and faculty with an opportunity to reconnect and network with one another in conjunction with the ACHE Congress events.
HSA Co-Sponsors Minority C-Suite Executive Roundtable
A successful event March 21 provided Georgetown students with the opportunity to interact with high-ranking minority health care executives from the Washington, D.C., area. More than 100 people gathered in the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center for the 2013 Minority C-Suite Executive Roundtable, hosted by the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE) Washington Metropolitan Area Chapter and co-sponsored by the Department of Health Systems Administration. For the full story visit http://nhs.georgetown.edu/372870.html.
HSA Faculty Published in PLOS ONE
Michael Stoto, PhD, professor of health systems administration, is corresponding author of a new manuscript titled “Did Advances in Global Surveillance and Notification Systems Make a Difference in the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic—A Retrospective Analysis.” The manuscript appeared online April 3 in PLOS ONE and examines the public health response systems during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. Stoto and his colleagues conducted a systematic and detailed review of the scientific literature, official documents, Web sites, and news reports to construct a timeline of events for the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, including the emergence and spread of the virus, local health officials’ awareness and understanding of the outbreak, and notifications about the events and their implications. The study was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (grant #5P01TP000307-01) and the full manuscript is available at http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0059893.
MHSA Students Improve Quality
As part of the Department of Health Systems Administration’s extensive quality curriculum, students champion real-world performance improvement projects where they can apply Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodologies, American Society for Quality recommendations, Institute for Healthcare Improvement requirements, ISO 9000 quality management standards and other approaches. The most recent student-led initiative supported the radiology department within a large academic health system in an effort to locate inefficiencies within their inventory and stockroom. An expansive “par” review of all items within the department, and all orders placed within a 12-month period, afforded a better understanding of the frequency upon which certain items were being ordered. After adjusting the par levels for more than 2,000 entries, the team then made a list of all expired or outdated items that were costing high dollar amounts to maintain. These expired items were flagged for removal, potentially saving the health system nearly $100,000 in a relatively limited amount of time.
Concurrently, a second team collaborated with laboratory supervisors within a large metropolitan hospital to both identify duplicate lab test orders and reduce the turn-around time for cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) gram stain tests. After analyzing numerous workflows via process mapping and other LSS tools, the team determined a number of root-causes and offered recommendations that standardized the ordering processes, promoting shared accountability and a more efficient management of lab orders; and redesigned the CSF testing process by eliminating bottlenecks and variation, resulting in an estimated 30 percent reduction in turnaround time for test results.