Industrial engineers work in a variety of jobs in hospitals and HMO's. Typical projects might involve process analysis, time and cost studies, facility design, simulation, process and quality improvement, financial and organizational planning, and information system design. IEs in health care often are called management engineers (MEs) or have other job titles, but many of the tasks and skills are much the same as for IEs in any other industry. As in most other industries, the possible career paths and day-to-day job responsibilities are quite varied and nearly limitless.

Some examples of the diversity of projects/activities that a management engineer typically gets involved with in their organization are listed below. As in any industry, the industrial engineer or management engineer can have a major impact on the success of the organization by providing value added results. The methodologies used by an industrial engineer or management engineer are applicable in many different healthcare settings, including:

• acute care facilities
• long term care facilities
• skilled nursing facilities
• home care agencies
• outpatient clinics
• insurance organizations
• physician practices/offices

2007 Student Paper Competition winners

In the Undergraduate competition, the winner is:

Improving Patient Satisfaction in a Cancer Center
Alison M Wachs
Tennessee Technological University
Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering

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In the Graduate competition, the winner is:

Determining Provider Scheduling Templates in Open Access Clinics
Xiuli (Shelly) Qu
Purdue University
School of Industrial Engineering

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