Role of industrial engineering within the disciplines that ensure quality health services

Abstract

Introduction: Teamwork is the key to obtaining good results in health care for citizens, at the lowest possible cost. The contributions of industrial engineers in the optimization of some healthcare processes have been present since the beginning of this subject area.

Objective: To analyze the contribution of industrial engineers in the organization of different healthcare processes.

Methods: A literature review was conducted, with the descriptors Industrial Engineering, Health, Optimization of Processes and Management. Studies and articles were located in the databases Medline, SciELO and Google Scholar on the relationship between industrial engineering and medical care from the beginnings of this subject area to the present.

Conclusions: There is a full correspondence between care and managerial particularities of health systems and services and the profile of industrial engineers, who have several points of contact on issues as complex as the simplification and rationalization of care and surgical processes; the efficient organization of warehouses; continuous quality improvement; human capital management, among others. In Cuba there is some progress in the incorporation of industrial engineers in the field of health services, but it is not yet at the level of other countries in which there is already a culture of their potentialities and how they can contribute to a high-level health system.