Thursday (April 17)

Speaker(s):      Richard Bohmer (HBS)
Title:                  Approaches to the Management of Clinical Processes
Place:                Aldrich Reading Room (Baker Library)
Time:                 1:00-2:30 p.m.

Abstract

In this seminar I will propose that common approaches to management in health care are inconsistent with the nature of the clinical process. Drawing from health care management and operations management literatures, I will discuss current approaches to the design and management of the clinical process, the "production process" of health care, and their flaws. I will argue that the clinical process (the sequence of decisions and tasks, undertaken by health care professionals, that comprise the activities of addressing a patient's health needs) is primarily a problem-solving process, comprising many small experiments and feedback loops, that fundamentally involves learning about the patient and their disease, by individual care givers and care giving organizations. I will discuss several interventions, not currently commonplace, that might better support health care as a learning process.