Holly E. Lane

ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0002-2039-8576

Graduation Semester and Year

2017

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial Engineering

Department

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

First Advisor

Jamie Rogers

Second Advisor

Carter Tiernan

Abstract

One of the most vulnerable populations in healthcare is the newborn infant. As hospitalization for childbirth is the largest cause for entry into a healthcare facility, the population of newborns each year is extensive as is their cost of care. Newborn infants also may have additional costs associated with readmission for common or preventable illnesses, which may occur due to insufficient infant screening or lack of caregiver knowledge. Much research has been done to attempt to determine causes of readmission, what contributes to an increased or decreased readmission rate among newborns, and how healthcare interventions can impact these rates and newborn health. Although many intervention types have been attempted, most of them have been centered on in-person education which can drastically increase costs and make a promising intervention non-cost effective. Healthcare Systems engineering has its roots in the discipline of industrial engineering and allows for the use of statistical and analysis tools to identify problems and provide appropriate solutions. One of the main focuses of the healthcare industry is on providing cost-effective solutions that can improve patient outcomes. As healthcare personnel are notoriously understaffed and overworked, solutions need to be presented in a manner that they are both likely to be adopted by the practitioner and received well by the patient. Using the existing research from the literature, several Ishikawa diagrams on readmission causes and factors were developed. The data from these diagrams was used to create forest plots for meta-analysis of existing literature, and a simulation model of readmission and mortality in newborn readmissions was developed. Additionally, a C based program has been developed to quickly calculate odds ratios and confidence limits for a given case study data set and store and retrieve information on individual factors. The goal of this work is for healthcare professionals to have access to tools, the simulation and the program, which will allow them to quickly and easily access available data from the literature as well as their own studies to apply to intervention creation and testing in order to facilitate an analytical approach to newborn readmission.

Keywords

Industrial engineering, Healthcare, Simulation, Newborn healthcare

Disciplines

Engineering | Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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