Quality and Patient Satisfaction

Competency

• Examine the principles and functions of healthcare operations management.
• Discuss the competencies and professional qualities of healthcare administrators and operations managers.
• Compare and contrast operations management challenges and or barriers that affect various healthcare delivery systems.
• Explain the role and impact of data analytics on decision making processes in a selected healthcare setting.
• Apply the principles and practices of operations management to improve performance outcomes of a healthcare organization.
• Design value-driven operational processes aligned with creating an effective balance among costs, quality, and access to care.

Scenario

A for-profit healthcare organization is attempting to address patient satisfaction concerns based on a recent survey. Patients have indicated their dissatisfaction with the time spent in the waiting area for ED visits. You are part of the operations team tasked with developing a new service, which will allow patients to make online reservations for emergency room visits prior to arrival to the ED. The VP of Operations has asked you to assist with the proposed addition by developing a presentation that can be shown to the executive board for the new service offering. Most of the board members have extensive experience in business and are very well abreast with the role of operations management in business. Part of your task is to illuminate the parallels of operations management in business with operations management in healthcare. You have decided to use OpenTable, an organization known for its online reservation processes as your benchmark.

Instructions

The presentation should include:

1. A discussion on the significance of operations management in healthcare, its principles and functions and the need for competent leadership in the areas of operations management and healthcare administration in order to achieve operational goals.
2. The potential benefits and challenges of implementing e-Reservations in the healthcare setting.
3. A strategy map.
4. A value proposition.
5. An analysis of the OpenTable success story.
6. A proposed change simulation model (SmartArt can be used to create a flow chart to depict the proposed changes).
7. A process improvement methodology (Six Sigma, Lean, etc.) discussion on how the application of the chosen methodology can reduce artificial variance, specific to the performance of key organizational leaders (i.e., healthcare administrator, operations manager).

The goal of the presentation is to convince the board of trustees the new service will improve quality and increase patient satisfaction. Students should have creative freedom to present their assignments utilizing any mode of presentation, i.e. PowerPoint, portfolio, internal memorandum, etc.