URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2015_Melissa-McCarthy

“What the relationship has brought us is new approaches, new insights and new ways of doing things.” - Robert Harris

control staff to understand and use.

questions for fear of embarrassment. But Alhasani asks the questions and has the staff rethinking some of their presentations. When staff members present, they also like to show data to motivate teams to work even harder on infection prevention. Cedeno says if Alhasani can develop better tracking systems that would make showing the results of those efforts clearer, it could encourage participation. “We collect a lot of data, but the way to present it is sometimes not effective,” Cedeno says. Alhasani says he’s confident given some time he can develop a more effective system. What he designs and learns will then serve as the basis of his doctoral thesis. He also plans to take the knowledge back to his native Saudi Arabia, which has dealt with major disease outbreaks such as the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. When Alhasani graduates, Maier- Speredelozzi expects another student will take his place studying a new topic at the Providence VA. She’s never had a problem finding a student intrigued by applying industrial engineering at a health care facility. “It hits home with people,” she says. “Most people can recall a health care experience that they wish had been better engineered.”

“From the industrial engineering perspective, we would love to help them understand how advanced statistics can help them,” Alhasani says. Internally, the VA tracks infection rates at all its centers and allows local staff members to see how their center stacks up against others nationwide. With Providence’s relative modest size compared to other centers, even a few fewer infections can cause big swings in the infection percentage rates. “That’s a lot of pressure,” says Brigida Cedeno, an infection preventionist at the Providence VA. Cedeno says her staff appreciates the opportunity to work with Alhasani, who has little background in health care. While that may sound counter-intuitive, it means staff members start thinking about the assumptions they make when they present to wide groups of people at the hospital. In meetings, participants may be shy to ask basic

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Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi, Associate Professor, Mechanical, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Ahmed Alhasani, Robert Harris

Spring | 2015 Page 55