Healthcare Systems Engineering

Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite knowledge: Knowledge of mathematical modeling, time series analysis, and experimental
design is required.
About the course: This is a course in Healthcare Systems Engineering techniques and processes. The
course will develop a fundamental understanding of quantitative tools used to perform system analyses
and make decisions in the health care context. The majority of the instruction is through lectures and
case studies. Independent learning, teamwork, and real-work application is reinforced through research
papers, homework, and three mini-projects. The topics include:

The Healthcare Delivery System

Systems and Systems Thinking in Healthcare
Medical Devices for Precision Health
Patient Flow
Healthcare Financing
Health Analytics and Informatics
Lean and Six Sigma in Healthcare
Reliability and Patient Safety
Capacity Management
Health Logistics and Supply Chains
Hospital Infection Control

Course objectives: The course objectives are to supply students with the knowledge to identify, evaluate
and mitigate health care delivery problems through the use of interactive lectures, case studies and realworld application projects. After completing this course, students should be able to:
1) identify the needs, requirements and limitations of a health care system;
2) evaluate health care system quality; and
3) model and improve health care system performance.

Sample Course Calendar:

Lecture
The Healthcare Delivery System
Major Stakeholders and Drivers in the Healthcare Industry
cont.

Systems and Systems Thinking

A Systems Approach to Healthcare Delivery
Course Project - Overview and Aims
cont.

Medical Devices
Patient Flow
Clinical Workflows and Healthcare Visits
Physician Directed Queuing in the HMC Emergency Department
site visit to Hershey Medical Center
Care Coordination
Patient Centered Medical Home
Disparities in Healthcare
Coverage and Access in Healthcare
Healthcare Financing
Insurance
Compensation Models
Costing and Valuation
Incentives
Value Based Purchasing
Issues and Implications in Healthcare Financing
Project 1: Systems Thinking
Student Mini-Presentations
Health Data and Informatics
Electronic Health Records
Publically Reported Healthcare Data
Consumer Health Informatics
Student Research Project Work
Health Analytics (cont.)
Data Mining
SNA/Data Visualization
Reliability and Patient Safety
Errors in Healthcare
Human Reliability
Medical Devices
2-min Elevator Speech on Project 2

Lean
Methodology and Tools
Implementations
Six Sigma
Methodology and Tools
Implementations
Six Sigma
Monitoring Approaches
Translational Research
Public Health
and Cost-Effectiveness Modeling
Cost-effectiveness Measures
-- QALYs, DALYs, and such
Capacity Management
Bed Management
Healthcare Worker Staffing
Healthcare Delivery
Genomics implications
Health Logistics
Home health scheduling
Site location modeling
Project 3: Cost-effectiveness analysis.
Student Mini-Presentations
Health Supply Chains
Forecasting Demand
Inventory Planning and Positioning
Measuring spatial access to home healthcare services
Hospital Infection Control
Modeling of interventions
Reducing hospital acquired infections
Project 4
Student Poster Session