This is archived content, for historical reference only.

California’s safety-net hospitals serve a population that would otherwise not have access to care. To provide the highest quality care to California’s underserved residents, these hospitals need to look to innovative ideas to ensure the safety of patients, achieve the best clinical outcomes, and maximize efficiency in their operations.

One way to achieve these goals is through the application of management engineering methods. Management engineering is a systematic process for diagnosing and correcting problems in service delivery. It can improve care by increasing productivity, controlling costs, and reducing wait times for patients.

Improving Efficiency in the Safety Net: Management Engineering Practice and Cases looks at the benefits of applying management engineering processes through demonstration projects in 12 California safety-net hospitals. It describes the keys to a successful intervention, the potential impact, and the lessons learned. An appendix provides detailed case studies.

The primer Operations Improvement Methods: Choosing a Path for Hospitals and Clinics, also by Dr. Belson, outlines improvement methods, including Lean and Six Sigma, which have been successfully employed in the health care sector.

Both papers are available under Document Downloads.