Achieving Organizational Excellence in Healthcare
This textbook is a comprehensive and flexible resource designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses in healthcare operations management. It offers a structured, three-part framework that covers foundational concepts, operational systems, and strategic implementation, along with a full suite of teaching resources. It features a Quality Matters-certified instructional design and draws on extensive professional experience to deliver exceptional value. Focusing on managerial decision-making within the U.S. healthcare context, the book equips students with practical, data-driven skills through real-world case studies, quantitative exercises, and interdisciplinary topics such as quality management, analytics, strategic planning, agility, and sustainability. These elements support students in applying their learning to drive enterprise-level transformation in healthcare organizations. Drawing on extensive experience in healthcare leadership, academic research, consulting, and teaching across disciplines, the authors bring a practical, real-world perspective that enhances both the rigor and relevance of the content.
The book offers not only academic rigor but also practical insights that makes it a valuable addition to healthcare operations education. It can be used as a standalone textbook or paired with another text for selected readings and assignments. Instructors will find rubrics, discussion questions, culminating projects, case-based assignments, journal article discussion forums, and curated supplementary materials for use throughout the course.
Gayle Prybutok is a recently retired Associate Professor in Health Services Administration at the University of North Texas, USA. Building on her past experience as a registered nurse and healthcare executive, her research focuses on three key areas within health services and information: health communication, with an emphasis on e-health; healthcare service quality; and health informatics. She was selected as a National Institutes of Health Early Career Reviewer in 2019. She was co-editor of the International Journal of Healthcare Quality Assurance and served on the editorial board of the International Journal of Electronic Healthcare.
Xianghui (Richard) Peng is an Associate Professor of Project and Supply Chain Management in the Black School of Business at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, USA. He has served as a reviewer for more than 40 research journals across multiple disciplines, including business analytics, healthcare management, operations management, and supply chain management. His research and teaching areas include agile project management, business analytics, healthcare operations, project management, quality management, supply chain management, and technology management.
Victor R. Prybutok is a G. Brint Ryan Endowed Professor and Regents Professor of Decision Sciences in the G. Brint Ryan College of Business at the University of North Texas. USA. He is an American Society for Quality certified quality engineer, certified quality auditor, certified manager of quality / organizational excellence, and an American Statistical Association accredited professional statistician (PSTAT®). He received the 2018 Decision Sciences Institute Lifetime Distinguished Educator Award and served as president of the Decision Sciences Institute from May 2024 to May 2025. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Quality Management Journal.
Dr. Steven M. Williamson is a Senior Digital Product Manager for Generative and Agentic AI at Alcon, where he leads the strategy, governance, and delivery of enterprise AI solutions in regulated healthcare environments. With more than two decades of experience spanning healthcare operations, quality systems, and patient safety, he specializes in agentic AI ecosystems, multi-agent orchestration, and knowledge architecture. He earned a Ph.D. in Information Science with a concentration in Data Science and AI, as well as a Master of Science in Advanced Data Analytics, from the University of North Texas. His research on AI governance, digital trust, privacy, and misinformation has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Applied Sciences, Information, and the International Journal of Information Management Data Insights.