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Healthcare Operations (HO) is considered as the process of planning, implementing and improving a healthcare system. The provision of healthcare services requires the coordination between patient flows and diagnostic & therapeutic activities, maximising the output/throughput with available resources, taking into account different requirements for delivery flexibility (elective/appointment, semi-urgent, urgent) and assuring acceptable standards for delivery reliability (waiting list, waiting times) and reliable medical outcomes
In this context, the HO course (6 CFU module) aims to provide the student of the graduate program in Engineering and management for health with an understanding of the issues related to the strategic management of Operations in terms of concepts, methodologies and tools needed to optimize healthcare processes.
By the end of the course, students will acquire:
-Mastery on how to manage the Production Planning and Control Process in healthcare systems
-Knowledge related to the methods of analysis and modelling of healthcare processes
-Good theoretical and practical understanding of the lean techniques: kaizen principles, Value Stream Mapping, SMED, 5S, kanban.
The course contributes to the educational goals of the graduate programs of the technological-industrial area, in particular regarding the process analysis and the operations management in the healthcare organizations.
The Healthcare Operations (MOD1) course can be followed as a single course or integrated with the Simulation techniques in healthcare processes (MOD2) course.
1)INTRODUCTION TO HEALTHCARE OPERATIONS
HOM strategies
2)PRODUCTION PLANNING AND CONTROL IN HC SYSTEMS
What are the main elements affecting PPC in HOM, the different types of resources and their main criticalities in PPC
Comprehension of hierarchical framework for production planning and control of HC systems.
3)BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING
What is the meaning of process, how a process is studied, how it is represented
How to analyze and improve processes
Introduction to BPMN 2.0
4)LEAN PROCESS MANAGEMENT
Principles of lean management applied to healthcare processes
Main lean management methods and tool (e.g. 5S, VSM, SMED, Kanban, ) and related examples
The course contents are discussed in lectures and case discussions, with particular attention to the interaction with the students who have the opportunity to formulate questions and propose topics for further discussion.
Lectures aim to introduce and discuss the methods and the principles of management outlined in the objectives of the course.
The course material consists mainly of the slides and exercises available on the course page on the e-learning portal. The slides are complemented with further readings from the recommended books in the bibliography. The slides serve as a support to the classroom discussion: therefore, during the discussion in the classroom, further details not present on the slides may be provided.
During the semester, seminars held by industrial experts will be organized in order to improve the comprehension of the theoretical concepts and understand how they can be applied in a real environment.
The password to access the material published on the course e-learning portal is communicated during the first lecture of the course. If unable to attend the first lesson, please contact the professor by e-mail.
The assessment and evaluation consist of a written exam (approximately 2 hours long) and an oral exam.
The written exam usually includes 4 true or false questions, 1 essay questions, 3 or 4 definitions and 2 exercises. The written exam mark can be up to 30/30. During the exam is forbidden to use the lecture material (notes, books, slides, etc.). For students attending also MOD2, the final grade will be the average of the grades achieved in the two exams.
If the mark of the written exam is at least 18/30, students are allowed to attend the oral exam.
The oral exam allows to increase the grade obtained in the written test by a maximum of 3 points. It can take place in two modalities:
- For students attending both modules (MOD1 and MOD2), the discussion of one home take assignment in common with the Simulation techniques in healthcare processes course (MOD2). The text of the assignment will be provided to the students during the semester. The home take assignment must be prepared in groups of 2/3 people. The assignment discussion takes place in ad hoc sessions organized during / at the end of the semester (in this case the evaluation mark is valid for 1 year) or during the oral sessions that take place after having successfully passed the written exam. Usually, the oral discussion is organized 1 week after the written exam. The discussion lasts around 30 minutes for each assignment.
- An oral exam aimed to evaluate the student degree of knowledge on the course arguments. The oral exam takes place usually 1 week after the written exam. The oral exam can be attended only in the same session of the written exam successfully passed. The oral exam lasts about 40 minutes.
If the oral examination is failed, the result of the written exam is cancelled.
Would the course be taught in blended or distance-based lecturing modes, modifications might be carried out on the syllabus, to make the course and the exams accessible under the new lecturing modes.