Developing Efficiencies in Health Care Design: Using Supply Chain Management Principles to Solve Design Problems

Supply Chain Management has many fundamental principles that can be applied to all businesses to improve efficiency and create more transparency, this in turn, encourages collaboration and fosters healthy professional relationships. Using the fundamental principles of supply chain management, I evaluated the Veterans Administration(VA) hospital in regards to their provided treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) to look for places where efficiency can be improved. I analyzed the problem in relation to Supply Chain Management, PTSD, and design in order to create a more complete solution. Once these areas were addressed, I proposed a solution that included creating a separate clinic for PTSD treatment that addressed the current issues in regards to treatment at the VA hospital. My goal was to improve space efficiencies and design a treatment environment that is more evolved and conducive to veterans suffering from PTSD. Though the creation of one PTSD clinic will not be able to completely change the system, it can be a step in the right direction to bring about the change that needs to occur within the VA medical system.