NDSU is working with Fargo Veterans Affairs Medical Center to improve the healthcare access at the center and its Community-Based Outpatient Clinics. The System Redesign Improvement Capability Grant from the Veterans Health Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs provides funding for the project.

Teaming up with the System Redesign group at the Fargo Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering faculty Jing Shi, Jun Zhang and Kambiz Farahmand are applying Industrial and Systems Engineering tools to address various clinical operational issues such as patient access and clinical space optimization. The outcomes also are expected to be disseminated to the Veterans Affairs facilities nationwide. The NDSU team received $336,514 from the $1.3 million three-year project.

The researchers also are helping build the healthcare workplace of the future for the Veterans Health Administration. They are part of the Midwest Mountain Veterans Engineering Resource Center, a new national initiative for the Veterans Health Administration that is supported by multi-year funding streams and led by the Veteran Affairs Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System.

The center consists of ten academic institutions, four Veteran Integrated System Networks and four Veterans Health Administration research centers. The Veterans Engineering Resource Center's focus is to develop innovative solutions to complex healthcare delivery challenges and to develop a workforce that is proficient in the use of Operations and Systems Engineering principles and tools.

The NDSU team was awarded $228,514 for the first year, which is the largest award among the ten institutions including University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Minnesota and University of Iowa. The NDSU team is qualified to receive over $500,000 in total for the initial three-year project period.