ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT The healthcare crisis in the United States has prompted the Institute of Medicine [10M] and National Academy of Engineering [NAE] to collaborate to address how systems engineering could be used to rcdcsif,'11 processes and delivery systems in healthcare. A collaborative effort funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Science Foundation, NIH, and NAE, brought together engineers and healthcare professionals to examine engineering applications and systems engineering tools as they apply to the healthcare system. The full report, Building a Better Delivery System: A New Engineering/Health Care Partnership, outlines several recommendations to close the growing gap. In response the Clemson Univcrsity-GHS partnership demonstrates how systems engineering principles can be used. In this research, the authors present several concurrent research efforts being pursued as a partnership between Greenville Hospital System and Clemson University, and variety of tools that can be used to study and solve complex issues faced in hcalthcarc. In particular, the authors suggest where both human factors and quantitative systems modeling can be used to provide insight and recommendations for changing existing processes.
