Ferrari pit stops help doctors in the O.R.
Tired of defending auto racing with the same old tales of ground-breaking innovations such as the disk brake and the rear view mirror? Looking for something fresher to defend your sport against the inevitable criticisms of friends and family who don't share your passion? Well, how about this...
Research work with the Ferrari F1 team has helped doctors at a U.K. children's hospital completely transform their procedures during the critical period when a young patient is transferred from the operating room to a recovery room in the intensive care facility. The same work flow planning, minimizing of wasted motion, and intensive training that lets the Ferrari pit stop team compress their work on the car into a well-choreographed routine that takes just over four seconds has been successfully applied by Ferrari to a time and motion study at Greater St. Ormond Street children's hospital.
Ferrari's Nigel Stepney, race technical director, headed a Ferrari team that filmed and analyzed videos of the doctors at work and then developed pit-stop-like work flow and procedures with Professor Martin Elliot, head of cardiac surgery, and Dr. Allan Goldman, who directs pediatric intensive care. The restructured procedures are now part of the hospital's regular operations, and the innovative approach is soon to be published in the scientific literature.
Beats the heck out of the rear-view mirror.
[Source: The Telegraph via Jalopnik]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
UH2L 12:54PM (9/02/2006)
It's called Operations Management, taught in every business school, but the medical industry seems to need something high profile and glamorous like F1 racing to get with the program and improve their efficiency.
UH2L
www.thingsivenoticed.com
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Laurie 11:07PM (9/01/2006)
Shades of Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr, & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey's "Cheaper by the Dozen". They spent a lot of time studying wasted motion, and it has resulted also in efficient kitchen design, ergonomics, and now the F-1 crew and a children's hospital. While each child's individual case is different, all have at least some procedures in common. This could likely help in trauma rooms as well, to enable emergency personnel to get the most information as quickly as possible during the "golden hour" after injury. The book is a terrific read, as is the sequel, "Belles on their Toes". I highlyu resommend both, and I think this was a great idea!
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AM 2:26PM (9/02/2006)
Oh sure just another foreign car loving article, why I'll bet NASCAR crews are even faster, especially since they work on more reliable cars....Oh sorry,I thought this was article was complimenting Toyota for something.
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ZoomZoomin' 3:01PM (9/02/2006)
That's pretty awesome.
While a lot of businesses (should) focus on operations management to minute detail (particularly anything involved with production), I could understand how a hospital may not have taken that mode of thinking when it comes down to the level of actually optimizing physical movements.
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