Question

1. How have healthcare facilities incorporated operations management principles into their operations?
2. What future trends are currently being adopted within health operations management?
3. Explain one trend you predict holds the greatest significance for operations management.

Answer 1

Health care facilities have incorporated the Operations Management principles in several ways like:

• Reducing waiting time = In health care units, patient have to move from one station to another for check ups. The activities are synchronized in such a manner that their waiting time is minimum
• Reducing motion = The stations in hospitals are structured and planned to reduce the travel of patient from one unit to another. It is related to layout design concept in Operations
• Focus on improved throughput = The health care units have started using the throughput as a means to know efficiency. It is related to number of patients being treated in a day or week to optimize the resource utilization
• De-bottlenecking process = The health care units thoroughly review their processes to know the bottleneck and accordingly add capacity to maximize the resource utilization
• Manpower optimization = Basis the man movement study, staff requirement is predicted so as to cut down on excess cost and ensure profitability