Improved communication, efficient patient care and teamwork are just some of the goals of a new engineering resource center made possible by a $4.1 million grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs to its Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System.
The Omaha VA Medical Center will establish the Midwest Mountain Veterans Engineering Resource Center (VERC) as part of its focus on transforming health care.
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The Midwest Mountain VERC’s focus is to “build the health care workplace of the future,” said Dr. Woodbridge, who also is the associate chief of staff for quality and medical effectiveness at the VA NWIHCS.
The center’s staff will not only engineer health care delivery excellence, but will also develop a work force that strives for continuous improvement, he said.
Dr. Woodbridge will lead the center with Susan Hallbeck, Ph.D., professor in the department of industrial and management systems engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Hallbeck also has a courtesy appointment in surgery at UNMC.
“Industrial engineering methods, such as computerized models, simulations and ergonomics, can greatly enhance safety, effectiveness, timeliness and efficiency,” Hallbeck said. “In the health care setting, the impact can be better quality care and reduced costs.”
Karen Grigsby, Ph.D., associate professor in UNMC’s College of Nursing, said the project isn’t just about systems improvement. It is designed with patients in mind.
“We want to improve the patient experience across the VA system. Hopefully, our center will provide a national model for the best care,” Dr. Grigsby said.
Dr. Grigsby is part of four teams that will develop projects in these areas:
- System redesign, virtual collaboration and team support;
- Health care improvement methods ontology;
- Coordinating care across the continuum; and
- Electronic health record documentation.
Cross training medical and engineering students
The Omaha-based VERC will be a collaboration of eight engineering and five health care academic institutions and 17 VA medical centers in 16 upper Midwest and Rocky Mountain states, including the UNMC, Creighton University Medical Center and UNL.
By cross training health care employees in industrial methods, they will train a health care work force proficient in systems improvement. Conversely, by cross training industrial engineering students in health care delivery, the goal is to open medical careers to these students.