About

Starting Semester: Fall 2026
Assigned: No
Location: Atlanta

Grady Health System

Client Profile

Grady Health System is a large academic medical center in downtown Atlanta that provides emergency, acute, and outpatient medical care. Grady is the only level 1 trauma center in metro Atlanta, and has 953 licensed beds.

Grady improves the health of the community by providing quality, comprehensive healthcare in a compassionate, culturally competent, ethical, and fiscally responsible manner. Grady maintains its commitment to the underserved of Fulton and DeKalb counties, while also providing care for residents of metro Atlanta and Georgia. Grady leads through its clinical excellence, innovative research, and progressive medical education and training.

The Grady Main Inpatient Pharmacy is responsible for stocking and distributing medications to all acute care units within the hospital, and processes over 5,000 inpatient medication orders per day.

Project Description

Quantifying and Optimizing Manual Support Processes at Grady Hospital

Client: Grady Hospital
Consulting Partner: Georgia Tech ISyE
Prepared by: Mary Grace Albuna and Diana Nguyen Client Profile
Grady Health System is one of the largest public health systems in the United States, serving the Atlanta metropolitan area. Its flagship facility, Grady Memorial Hospital, is a Level I trauma center and a critical provider of healthcare services to a diverse and high-volume patient population.
Client Need
Grady Hospital relies on a wide range of manual, labor-intensive support processes to maintain daily operations across its inpatient and operational facilities. These processes include, but are not limited to:
• Trash and waste collection
• Food delivery support activities
• Linen pickup and redistribution
• Supply transport between departments
• Environmental services support tasks

While these activities are critical to patient care and hospital efficiency, many of them are not well quantified in terms of:
• Time spent per task
• Frequency and variability of tasks
• Labor utilization and staffing impact
• Travel distance and movement across floors
• Interactions with elevators and shared infrastructure

Currently, limited data exists to clearly understand the true operational cost, bottlenecks, and variability associated with these manual processes. As a result, opportunities for efficiency improvements, workload balancing, or automation may be difficult to identify.
Grady Hospital is seeking a structured, data-driven approach to measure, document, and analyze manual processes in order to inform future operational decisions and improvement initiatives.
________________________________________
Project Objectives
This project aims to:
• Identify and catalog key manual support processes across the hospital
• Quantify time, labor effort, and movement associated with these processes
• Identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and sources of variability
• Establish baseline metrics for operational performance
• Provide insights that can support future process redesign, staffing optimization, or automation efforts
________________________________________
Scope of Work
Georgia Tech ISyE team will perform the following activities:
1. Process Identification & Mapping
• Work with Grady stakeholders to identify high-impact manual processes
• Define process boundaries, triggers, and handoffs
• Develop high-level process flow maps for each selected activity
2. Data Collection
• Conduct time-and-motion studies for selected manual tasks
• Observe staff workflows across multiple shifts and floors
• Collect data on:
o Task duration
o Frequency of execution
o Travel distance and elevator usage
o Staffing involvement
• Supplement observations with staff interviews where appropriate
3. Quantitative Analysis
• Aggregate and analyze collected data to establish baseline metrics
• Identify:
o High time-consuming activities
o Redundant or non–value-added steps
o Peaks and variability in workload
• Compare observed practices across units or shifts where applicable
4. Insights & Opportunity Identification
• Highlight opportunities for:
o Process standardization
o Reduced walking or transport time
o Improved scheduling or batching
o Better utilization of shared resources (elevators, carts, equipment)
• Identify processes that may be candidates for future automation or redesign
5. Findings & Knowledge Transfer
• Compile results into a clear, actionable report
• Present findings, baseline metrics, and insights to Grady leadership
• Provide recommendations prioritized by impact and feasibility
________________________________________
Deliverables
• Process maps for selected manual workflows
• Time-and-motion study results and summary statistics
• Baseline key performance indicators (KPIs) for manual processes
• Analysis of inefficiencies and operational constraints
• Final report with insights and improvement opportunities
• Presentation for Grady leadership and stakeholders

Skills

Process mapping and workflow analysis (e.g., documenting manual workflows and handoffs)
Time-and-motion studies and observational data collection in active operational settings
Data analysis skills, including comfort working with Excel, Python, R, or similar tools
Operations and industrial engineering fundamentals, such as bottleneck identification, capacity analysis, and variability analysis
Strong communication skills, including stakeholder interviews and clear written and verbal presentation of findings
Ability to work professionally in a hospital environment and collaborate effectively in a team setting

Data Access Requirement