David L. Belson, PhD
University of Southern California

Specialist in improving productivity in health care with over 20 years experience in Industrial Engineering and productivity improvement projects and research. Managed and conducted a wide variety of projects regarding process improvement, new technology, financial analysis, organization structures, facilities planning and information systems.

Technical Projects
Project for San Francisco General Hospital to improve patient flow in the Emergency Department. (2010)
Project for the Safety Net Institute to evaluate the implementation of Lean methods at four safety net hospitals in California. (2009 - 2010)
Project with Rand Corporation regarding electronic prescriptions and improving its effectiveness in pharmacies and clinics. (2010)
Project for the California Health Care Foundation to describe alternative methods for operational improvement including Lean, Six Sigma and Management Engineering. (2009)
Supervised a project at Long Beach VA Hospital to apply computer simulation to analyze waiting room delays. (2009)
Projects for California HealthCare Foundation to promote the use of management engineering for Safety Net hospitals in California. (2007-2009) Published Issue Brief and related reports. Projects completed at 12 hospitals in various functional areas including radiology, surgery, emergency department, bed management and other areas.
Project for Fort Bragg Hospital regarding patient flow at their outpatient clinic.
Directed Management Engineering in a variety of projects at Los Angeles County General Hospital.
Managed project for LA County DHS to review patient flow at the General Hospital. (2004-6) Made recommendations to improve operations based on problems and bottlenecks identified. Projects regarding surgery, radiology, bed management and GI outpatient departments.
Conducted study for US Department of Homeland Security to review current supply chain of pharmaceuticals regarding preparedness for bioterriorism emergencies. (2005) Published report.
For Providence St. Johns Hospital, Burbank, project to develop computer simulation of workflow in the radiology/MRI department. (2006)
Managed project to improve productivity in testing labs at US blood centers for Roche Pharmaceutical. Analyzed various alternative systems for the operation and distribution of equipment to labs. Report for Roche and the American Association of Blood Banks. Project involved analysis of blood donation, lab testing blood for AIDS and productivity improvement based on process mapping and simulation of typical blood labs.
Conducted project for the Yellow Freight Company, a large trucking concern headquartered in Kansas City. Project was to analyze internal Industrial Engineering services related to logistics and warehousing and to improve their ability to utilize Industrial Engineering.
For Amgen Corp’s headquarters, reviewed facility planning processes and recommended improvements for operations.
Developed recommendations to improve productivity, ability to grow, and revised new product introduction processes at a San Diego electronics manufacturer. Current manufacturing and organizational processes were process mapped and improvements recommended.
Project manager to create several processes to improve capacity and reduce inventory costs at Sun Micro Systems’ main-frame computer manufacturing in Beaverton, Oregon. Project involved demand-pull production system and implemented a capacity model and a Kanban inventory system based on process models that were developed.
Developed a Just In Time inventory system for NEC’s electronics assembly operation in Hillsboro, Oregon. Also helped implement a contract manufacturing service and a web site to market it. Projects resulted in measurable reductions in inventory costs.
Developed a computer simulation model of Seagate’s disk drive operations used to plan implementation of new technology and international facilities. Also managed a project to evaluate alternate robotic material handling and operating schemes for this same company.
Developed and executed a business process reengineering and process improvement project for Nissan Automotive related to their consolidation into a large new office operation in Dallas, Texas.

 

Presentation

Alternative Approaches to Change in Health Care Systems.

Improving hospital operations and reducing costs is feasible using Lean-Toyota methods as well as by using Management Engineering methods. The Lean approach emphasizes multidisciplinary collaborative activities to achieve cultural as well as workflow changes. Management Engineering emphasizes systems analysis and design to achieve solutions. The selection of a best approach depends on the issues to be addressed as well as the resources of the institution. The author has used both approaches in a wide variety of over 20 hospitals during the past 10 years.