Projects: Healthcare Management Analytics Lab

If you’ve ever sought medical care at an emergency room, you know that the wait to be seen by a doctor can seem interminable. Long wait times in the emergency department can lead not only to lower patient satisfaction, but also to reduced quality of care for patients whose condition deteriorates or who leave the hospital before being seen (which averages about 2% of patients nationwide). The reason for long wait times in an emergency department can be varied and multiply determined. This project aims to reduce wait times and improve efficiency in our sponsor’s ED by analyzing the effects of a performance feedback intervention given at the provider level. The underlying assumption is that providers will be motivated by this feedback to reduce inefficiencies under their control. In this project, you will use a longitudinal/time series analysis to compare the relative effectiveness of different types of comparative performance feedback (private, public, and competitive) on various quality of service outcomes. If one or more of the feedback mechanisms prove to be highly effective, your findings will have the potential for positive impact in emergency departments across the nation.