Contact Us

Staff

Boston Herald: SMG prof offers solutions to hospital ER crunches

Boston-area hospitals had to turn away emergency patients twice as often in 2001 as in 2000, but could solve the problem by scheduling elective admissions more evenly and staffing to peak volumes, says Eugene Litvak, an SMG research professor of operations management. "We have to staff to peak demand at all times," he says in the January 9 Boston Herald. Litvak, who is studying the issue under a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), gave a talk on January 9 on the emergency room diversion issue at a conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans. Overall, diversion hours in Boston hospital ERs nearly doubled from 2000 to 2001, with a total of 10,494 diversion hours last year, according to DPH records. Hospital volume fluctuates dramatically, sometimes by as much as 30 percent from any given day to the next, says Litvak. When volume is up, emergency rooms back up, since patients can't be admitted to beds due to staffing shortages. Staffing to peak volume might be prohibitively expensive if hospitals had no control whatsoever over the volume, he says, but that isn't the case. While half of admissions come through the emergency room -- and those can't be predicted -- another 35 percent are the result of elective surgeries or other elective admissions. But elective surgeries are scheduled haphazardly, so they cannot be planned for. "It is easiest to blame the surgeons," Litvak says, "but they need management help. We are not giving it to them. We must teach them how to smooth it. We do have the necessary tools. We must have the commitment."

Financial Times Information: Florida institute provides hands-on experience to SDM students

Future dentists of America are training at the Florida Institute for Periodontics and Dental Implants as part of an intensive program designed to immerse dental students into the world of cutting-edge dentistry, reports the January 10 Financial Times Information. Students from BU's Goldman School of Dental Medicine receive hands-on experience at the Boca Raton practice, where they learn the latest techniques in dentistry by assisting in patient treatments, performing office management duties, creating study models and temporary crowns, and observing the dynamics of the dentist-patient relationship. "This is another excellent opportunity for us to pass our knowledge and skills on to the next generation of dentists," says Jeffrey Ganeles, a periodontist and one of the founding partners of the institute. "We enjoy it as much as the students do." Robert Michaud, a second-year student at SDM, and his brother Richard Michaud, a first-year SDM student, work side by side with the periodontists at the institute, who will evaluate their progress throughout the clerkship. Both students are participating in SDM's Applied Professional Experience Program (APEX), which is part of the school's curriculum and the first of its kind in dental education.

18 January 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations