Evaluation of Product Line Management

The Bronx Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) has 311 hospital beds and 120 nursing home beds, and provides a broad range of inpatient and outpatient health care services for our nation’s veterans. It is currently one of the few VAMC’s in the nation that utilizes a Product Line Management (PLM) model. The Bronx VAMC is considering possible changes to its management structure and asked the Capstone team to provide recommendations. Although redesigning product lines could be beneficial for patient care, the Bronx VA is limited by budgetary and spatial constraints. The Capstone team conducted an extensive literature review, and interviewed staff, PLM consultants, and other healthcare organizations that are using PLM. The team provided recommendations on best practices to the senior management team with the information necessary to determine what changes are most critical, cost-effective, and feasible to implement.