Robert BattView profile
Associate Professor
Robert Batt is the Procter & Gamble–Bascom Professor and Associate Professor in the Department of Operations and Information Management at the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Wisconsin School of Business. He holds an affiliate appointment with the Department of Emergency Medicine in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. His research focuses on service operations with emphasis on healthcare delivery systems, particularly emergency department operations. His educational background includes: PhD in Operations Management from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (2013) MBA from Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business MEM and BE from Dartmouth College Thayer School of Engineering BA from Wheaton College & Dartmouth College Batt's research examines operational impacts of crowding, workflow efficiency, and quality measurement in healthcare settings. His work bridges operations management theory with practical healthcare delivery challenges, focusing on emergency department dynamics, physician workload effects, and facility design implications. He investigates how operational factors influence clinical outcomes and service quality through empirical analysis of real-world healthcare data. His publication portfolio shows consistent focus on emergency department operations (70% of recent work), with growing emphasis on pandemic response systems and quality improvement spillovers. Key recurring themes include workload-adaptive mechanisms, patient flow optimization, and the intersection of physical environment design with clinical performance. His methodological approach combines empirical field studies with operations modeling. As an educator, Batt teaches Service Operations Management to undergraduate and MBA students, drawing directly from his healthcare operations research. His editorial roles demonstrate recognition in both operations management (Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management) and emergency medicine (Academic Emergency Medicine) communities. He coauthored the influential book 'Modeling for Insight: A Master Class for Business Analysts'.




