Healthcare is big business, and the expenditures for health care are continually escalating. For example, the growth in health care spending in the U.S. has since 1998 exceeded the growth in GDP. The last two decades have seen strong efforts to curb costs, while also attempting to reduce medical errors and improving patients’ satisfaction with the health care system.

The Healthcare Operations Track is soliciting papers for presentation at EurOMA-2008 that contribute to the advancement of healthcare system design, operations, and improvement. Research on Operations in Healthcare can draw from diverse disciplines, such as operations and supply chain management, industrial engineering, information systems, strategy, performance management, quality, and technology management. Diverse research methods are also welcome, including empirical, analytical, numerical, and conceptual approaches. Sample topics include, but are not limited to:
• Measurement of organizational effectiveness and performance in healthcare.
• The role of technology in healthcare delivery.
• The transfer of principles and methods from manufacturing to healthcare.
• Managing organizational and technological change in hospital settings.
• Supply chain management in the healthcare sector.
• Lean and six sigma implementations to streamline healthcare processes.
• Information technology in healthcare (e.g., electronic medical records implementations).
• Operations management’s impact on cost and cost structures in healthcare.
• Safety management, quality management, and error reduction in hospitals.
• The role of organizational structure (e.g., service lines) in healthcare effectiveness.
• Justification of new technology in healthcare environments.
• Resource planning and patient scheduling in hospitals.
• Managing patient flows in hospitals.
• Operations management’s contribution to patient satisfaction.

Contributors are invited to email extended abstracts (500-800 words) to the conference site, www.EurOMA2008.org, by January 14th, 2008. Each abstract should contain the name of the author(s), affiliation, postal address, and e-mail, all placed on a separate page along with the title of the paper and the track name (Healthcare Operations). Please indicate the corresponding author. Abstracts will be blindly reviewed and evaluated based on the following criteria: Relevance, Clarity, Significance, Originality, Quality, and Impact.

Decisions regarding acceptance will be made by February 18th, 2008. Papers are accepted on the assumption that the manuscript is an original work and has not been copyrighted, published or accepted for presentation at other conferences. At least one author must register, attend the conference, and present the paper. Full papers must be received by April 14th, 2008. Accepted papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings.

Track organizers:
Urban Wemmerlöv, Erdman Center for Operations and Technology Management, School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA (uwemmerlov@bus.wisc.edu) and Nancy Hyer, Owen School of Management, Vanderbilt University, USA (nancy.lea.hyer@owen.vanderbilt.edu).