LGO Student Completes Clinic Study, Begins Business Operations Internship at MGH

By Devon Price

One of the most appealing aspects of the MIT LGO program is the opportunities it provides to tackle important operations challenges for partner organizations. I recently completed a three-month research assistantship with professors Retsef Levi and Jeremie Gallien at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and just began my 6.5 month engineering/MBA internship there.


Devon Price, LGO '11

My first MGH project started in March. Along with Leo Espindle, LGO '11, I worked with MGH's preadmissions testing area (PATA). This is a clinic where patients are evaluated prior to elective (non-emergency) surgery to determine if they are fit to undergo anesthesia.

In a perfect world, 100% of elective surgical patients would first visit PATA. When a patient can't be seen at the clinic, it increases the probability of delay or cancelation on the day of surgery. This costs the hospital money and harms the patient experience.

Historically, PATA has only been able to see 50% of elective surgical patients, and those who do come wait up to two-and-a-half hours during their visit. My goal was to help MGH to double patient throughput and cut wait time in half without adding resources.

At the outset, I suspected we could achieve that goal though improved process design and reduction in process variability. To test that hypothesis, we performed statistical analysis and created a discrete event simulation of the clinic to evaluate the impact of proposed changes. Indeed, analysis shows that with the right operational changes, no additional resources are required.

During the three-month project, we developed a phased plan that draws on various Lean Manufacturing principles to streamline the process and reduce variability. The details of the plan fall into three categories:

• Reducing redundancies and wasteful work


• Increasing information availability within the clinic to simplify operational decisions and streamline patient flow


• Enhancing collaboration and sharing of best practices among providers

In order to gauge the impact of our recommendations, we'll use both speed and quality metrics, which will include patient satisfaction and operating room delays due to inadequate workups.

My experience prior to coming to LGO was in manufacturing operations. This project has challenged me to apply those skills plus knowledge I've gained at MIT in a different environment. It also has given me a great deal of insight into opportunities and methodologies for operations improvements in hospitals — which is exciting given the importance of making healthcare more efficient and cost-effective.

My business operations internship is broader in scope. Over the next six months, I'll be helping MGH to design a scheduling strategy for the hospital's operating rooms with the goal of increasing utilization, improving patient flow and reducing patients' length of stay in the hospital.

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