Abstract submissions for 2011
Society for Health Systems Conference & Expo 2011
"Building Better Healthcare Systems"
Feb. 17-20, 2011
Orlando, Fla.
Abstracts are now being accepted for the Society for Health Systems Conference and Expo 2011.
Click here to submit your abstract. Deadline for submission is Aug. 7.
The Society for Health Systems Conference is your source for the the latest in operational and quality improvement tools, methodologies and concepts such as lean, Six Sigma, productivity, benchmarking, simulation and project management.
Submit your abstract now in one of the following areas:
Conference topics
Clinical
Human Factors
Information Technology
Leadership and Management
Lean Six Sigma
Patient Flow
Quality
Student Impressions of the SHS/ASQ Conference and Expo 2010
'Networking opportunities ... were most valuable'
"As a first time SHS/ASQ Conference attendee, I was extremely impressed with the quality of the educational sessions, the value of the keynote speakers, and the engaging discussions with other health system improvement professionals. I left with valuable information from the different session tracks. In particular, Matt Morrissette's session, “Kaizen Unleashed!” had some good examples and case studies that I think I will be able to readily apply in my future professional work. The presentation gave me some great insights on how to approach improvement work in general. Friday’s keynote speaker, Michael C. Riordan, President and Chief Executive Officer Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center, provided a great presentation on the possibilities of industrial and system engineers and how a background in engineering has helped him to systematically improve the management and quality systems in a large complex healthcare organization." Read more from Sarah Manning, University of Nebraska
'I appreciated the integration of the student members throughout the conference'
"My attendance at the SHS/ASQ conference was a great experience in which I was able to meet a variety of individuals working in health systems and to learn about the many types of projects that are being completed in this area. The range of topics in the educational sessions allowed me to sample from an assortment of applications of industrial engineering techniques in health systems including lean methodologies, discrete event simulation, linear programming, and monte carlo simulations. In addition, I learned about applications in the physical design of hospitals, implementation of new technology for inventory control systems, and appointment scheduling. One of the most valuable aspects of many of these presentations was the discussion of the challenges and lessons learned in the practical application of these techniques. This is information that is learned best through personal interactions and discussions at conferences rather than through published works. As a result, I broadened my understanding of both the design and implementation of projects in health systems during my time at the conference." Read more from Jackie Griffin, Georgia Tech
SHS/ASQ 2010 Wraps Up
Conference Recap - Saturday, Feb. 27
Day three of SHS/ASQ 2010 was the last full-scheduled day of the conference. Attendees continued to find informative and insightful education tracks covering topics such as patient flow improvements, solutions for emergency room overcrowding and ambulance diversion, and hospital design and layout using lean and the Toyota Production System. Attendees also got the chance to participate in another poster session and visit with exhibitors as well as listen to words from keynote speaker Dr. Barry Silbaugh, CEO of The American College of Physician Executives.
Congratulations to Sarah Bhagat and Kerry Coran on winning $50 American Express Gift Cards!
Their names were drawn from those who completed and turned in their conference evaluation forms.
Here are more photos from the 2010 conference:
Overheard ...
"This is my fourth conference in a row. The networking opportunities are fantastic. The opportunity to learn and see what other organizations are doing - it might not be anything groundbreaking, but to be able to pick up little nuances, tweak my own training programs and improve my organization based on what I learn here keeps bringing me back." - Karl Kraebber, Process Improvement Project Manager with St. Johns Hospital, Springfield, Ill.
"From the feedback I've received, the content is significantly stronger than it has been in the past, largely thanks to the partnership between the Society for Health Systems and ASQ. While SHS traditionally thinks of itself as a society of industrial engineers, we are so much more than that. In fact, while our base of industrial engineers is decreasing, our membership of people (in other professional areas) is increasing. As a discipline, we are thinking of ourselves as systems thinkers rather than traditional industrial engineers." - Marci Jackson with Premier Inc. and the incoming SHS president
Coming Sunday, Feb. 28 (Post-conference Workshop)
Executive Dashboards for Process Improvement - 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Georgia World Congress Center, Building C - Room C213
Carol Boberg, R.N., Karen Green, Cathy Menkiena, R.N., Cindy L. McKinney, Brenda Mollohan
This workshop will teach attendees how to leverage their organizational data for decision making purposes including but not limited to clinical, quality, operational and financial indicators. It will simulate a multi-disciplinary approach to defining measures for use in an executive dashboard. The entire process will be covered including defining the measures to be used, developing use cases/scenarios to support the measures, and identifying the data elements and sources (both existing and potentially new sources) to support the build out of an executive dashboard. Participants will develop a storyboard to show how the dashboard will actually be used at their organization.
This workshop is held in conjunction with HIMSS and will take place in the Georgia World Congress Center.
For more information on the participating organizations in 2010: