Northeastern University has partnered with the New England Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System to establish a new systems engineering center. The Center called the “New England Healthcare Engineering Partnership (NEHCEP) is expected to improve quality and performance throughout VA hospitals by designing innovative industrial engineering solutions to improve VA processes.
The Center has $3.4 million available annually in grant and matching funds from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and is one of four new Veterans Engineering Research Centers. Other partners include MIT, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and several VA Centers of Excellence.
According to James Benneyan, Executive Director of NEHCEP, the idea is to leverage the broad expertise of the VA and academic partners to embed engineering improvement methods and principles into the fabric of the VA healthcare system. The ultimate goal is to create cross-educated engineers and healthcare professionals.
Housed within the Boston VA Healthcare System, NEHCEP will serve the New England network of eight medical centers and 37 community-based outpatient clinics to provide care to 1.2 million veterans. NEHCEP will use advanced mathematical and computer modeling methods to analyze, improve, and optimize various types of processes to significantly improve specific concerns such as access, waits and delays, safety, optimal care, efficiency, equity and effectiveness related to healthcare.
For more information, contact Jenny Catherine Eriksen at 617-373-2802 or email j.eriksen@neu.edu.
