Operations Management in Health Care: Radiology Department - Essay Example

Running Head: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH CARE 2 Operations Management in Health Care: RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENT Name Institution Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENT 3 Part 1 3 Introduction 3 Quality management in the healthcare sector 3 Information Management 6 Part 2 7 Healthcare processes 7 Demand versus capacity of a healthcare service 8 Strategies to balance capacity and demand 11 Quality management in the patient flow process 12 Part 3 13 Productivity measures 13 Conclusion 18 References 19 RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENT Part 1 Introduction Healthcare systems have undergone various reforms in the recent past. The main aim of the reforms is to ensure that the clients (patients) receive quality healthcare services. The reforms are aimed at improving various healthcare processes and procedures to maintain efficiency. Initiatives like use of quality management have been introduced in the healthcare sector to ensure that the quality a standard of healthcare provision is maintained at all times. This however deals mainly with the management systems of the healthcare. The use of information management has also been developed in the healthcare to enable accuracy when dealing with patients Quality management in the healthcare sector Quality management is mainly a process that involves putting up measures and structures in place in order to ensure that standards which are acceptable are improved and maintained. Quality management is an important tool that improves quality and client satisfaction and it is closely related to operations management. Operations management also seeks to ensure that a feedback mechanism is developed so as to create an important link and good relationship between the organization and its clients which is a daily operational activity. This can only be made possible through quality management in the healthcare sector; quality management has played a key role in streamlining various operations and procedures. This has benefited both the healthcare providers and the patients. With the introduction of quality management, processes like the clinical cycle and patient flow has greatly improved. The time taken to perform these operations and procedures has been reduced to a great extent. Quality management usually lays down a procedural framework and the time taken to perform the tasks. Repeated procedures such as visiting various health departments before reaching the doctor, has been eliminated completely (Kaandorp, 2007). Quality management also introduces a feedback mechanism between the patients and the doctors to enable the managers improve on their operations management skills. This helps in improving the services offered. The healthcare service providers will be able to know the areas of improvement based on the feedback mechanism. Quality management also promotes team work and has encouraged good working relations between the doctors and nurses and thus promotes a good working environment that benefits the patient. Transparency and accountability has also been promoted in the healthcare sector by quality management practices which are a requirement for operational management. This has greatly reduced the incidences of patients paying more money or being overcharged by the healthcare providers. This is most common with patients who are insured by the healthcare service providers. Some patients have had to pay extra costs due to errors in the billing section. This therefore justifies that quality management is closely related to operations management and the two cannot be separated Flow chart for quality management in the radiology department. Information Management Health records are the most sensitive documents for operations management and require careful storage. Health records are closely related to operational management since they guide the daily operations of a healthcare facility. Without proper information management, then errors will occur at the operations management level. Total accuracy is required when dealing with health records to ensure smooth operation management. This is because any errors might compromise the health of the patient. This might occur due to wrong prescriptions. Initially the health record were usually recorded on hard copy and kept in files. This was a tedious process and was not very accurate. It was difficult for the management to trace the information incase it gets lost. This in turn could lead to serious consequences for the patient and the healthcare provider. However with reforms aimed at eliminating errors and improving the management of health records, this has completely changed. Health records are currently stored electronically. This is a great improvement and has made the management of the records easier. Huge volumes of data can be stored electronically and can be accessed easily. Electronic storage also ensures that the information stored is more accurate and can be verified. It requires little efforts to manage the records and thus it has reduced the cost of hiring more personnel to deal with the management of the stored information. Incase the information is lost due to damage of the equipment, it can still be traced as all the information is usually sent to a central database which have back up storage. Part 2 Healthcare processes The process of attending to patients The process that patients have to undergo when seeking treatment at the radiology department is quite cumbersome and involves many stages. It can be attributed to the low capacity of the medical facility and the high demand for healthcare services. This process involves all the medical and non medical staff in the healthcare facility. Due to various visits by patients to s healthcare facility, this process is encountered on a daily basis. Depending on the number of patients and the capacity of a healthcare facility, it may take a long time or a short time. The time taken by the patient to seek the relevant treatment has a direct impact on the recovery process. The time taken can also be used to determine the efficiency of the healthcare service provider (Singer, 2001). The flow chart above represents the procedures taken by the patient before being served by the medical personnel. Demand versus capacity of a healthcare service The demand for medical care is usually high than the capacity. This is unlike other services where the demand is seasonal. This is brought about by the fact that people value their health and some people will visit health facilities even when they are not sick but just seeking medical check up. The number of patients is therefore high at any given time. The capacity of a healthcare system to handle the number of patients at any given time is a key issue in determining the ability of the health facility to handle the patient flow procedures effectively. Real data Procedures Number of patients Number of medical personnel Time taken for treatment per patient. (hrs) Number of modern equipment Spinal injury 3 1 2 1 Head injuries 8 1 0.75 2 Chest 10 3 0.3333 1 Respiration 6 1 0.5 NIL Key Series 1: Number of patients Series 2: Number of medical personnel Series 3: Time taken for treatment per patient Series 4: Number of modern equipment Recommended measures of dealing with the high demand Quality measures are important for any healthcare facility to handle the rising demand with the capacity it has. The demand for healthcare services is high and the capacity of the healthcare facility is not adequate then the patient flow will take a lot of time. The time taken by the patient before getting the services of the doctor will increase and in most cases it will affect the recovery process of the patient. The medical personnel will also be overworked since they will be required to work for long hours in order to attend to all the patients. This will lower the quality of the healthcare service being provided. Long ques will be witnessed and the patents will not be satisfied in most cases. On the other hand if the demand for medical services is high at a medical facility but the capacity of the facility can handle it, then better results will be achieved. The time taken by the patient to receive treatment will be low and the patients will be satisfied. The capacity mainly depends on the equipment available together with qualified medical personnel. With modern medical equipment, the time taken by the patient to receive treatment will be low. With adequate capacity the patients will receive better health services and the medical personnel will not be overstretched in terms of working hours. Strategies to balance capacity and demand In order for the healthcare service provider to achieve any meaningful results regarding customer satisfaction, the capacity and demand should be balanced. The healthcare facility should firs analyze its capacity. The number of medical personnel should be established in the healthcare facility. This will include the number of doctors and nurses. The corporate affairs department should also be analyzed for the for the purpose of deterring the number of staff. This department is useful since they are the first to attend to the patients before giving them further direction. This department is mostly comprised of clerks. The medical facility should then make an analysis of the equipment that it has. This should include the modern equipment which takes a shorter time to serve the patients. The capacity of the hospital to attend to the in patents should also be determine and ensure that the capacity will not be overstretched. This will also include the bed capacity in the hospital. The out patient capacity should also be determined. After the analysis of the capacity of the hospital, the number of patients should be projected. This is usually done based on the population of the area and its growth rate. The hospital should project the number of patients that are likely to visit the facility each day. This will include both the in patient and the out patient. Based on these figures, the healthcare facility should come up with a mechanism of ensuring the demand and capacity is balanced. The possible strategies should then be made. The management should come up with a long term and short term solutions of dealing with the problem. The long term strategies may include the expansion of the facilities infrastructure. This will mainly include expanding the bed capacity, building new rooms for medical purposes and making renovations to the existing facility. The management should also consider purchasing new modern equipment that will serve the patients fast and is also accurate. This will help improve the patient flow process by reducing the time taken to serve them. If the facility has few medical personnel, then it should consider employing more staff depending on the number of patients projected. The number of medical personnel that will attend to a given number of patients should be consistence with the number set by the world health organization. This ratio set by the international body is quite useful and will adequately address the needs of the patients within a shorter period. The healthcare facility should also consider transforming its medical records department. Use of modern technology should be adopted. This will be important in keeping the health records and patients will take a shorter time to access the records when they require them. With these measures and strategies in place, then the healthcare systems will improve its capacity to deal with the needs of the patients adequately. Quality management in the patient flow process Quality management is important when dealing with a problem that involves patient flow procedures. The process of ensuring quality management should not be left to the medical personnel or the management alone. It should be all inclusive and each department should be located a specific task to perform. The management should also consider team work as a strategy to ensure that the quality management strategies succeed. The medical staff should take an active role in determining the time taken by the patients before they are treated. This can only be achieved by the doctors. One of the methods that can be used to determinant the time taken by the doctors is by using the doctors as patients. The doctors should assume the role pf patients and go through all the procedures that are taken by the patients. This will help them determine the areas that have problems and how to solve them. They should then make recommendations to their carious teams for improvements to be done (Michigan State University, 2007). Other departments should also participate in the procedure of quality management. The clerical department should also determine the time taken to serve the patients. Use of computers in this department is important in ensuring quality management is achieved. This is because the computers will eliminate the tedious processes that are usually experienced when manual methods are used. It will also improve on the time taken by the patients to access their medical records and thus improving efficiency (Cheang, 2003). The benefit of quality management in the health care sector and specifically the patient flow process is important to the healthcare service providers and the patients themselves. This is because the healthcare service provider will be able to build a good public image while at the same time benefit the patients. The patients will also be served within a shorter time and there would be no queue which makes the patients tired as they wait to be attended for. This also boosts the morale of the patient and thus ensures quick recovery process. During the follow up visits, the patient will always be confident and reports back without much stress associated with the flow (Parente, 2005). Part 3 Productivity measures Productivity is the analysis of how well the healthcare department transforms the resources it has been allocated into goods and services. The components of productivity includes; input, output and effectiveness. Input in this case refers to the tools and equipment that is used to run the operations. An example includes manpower, labor and time. The output on the other hand refers to the outcome that is produced after consuming the input. An example of output includes customer satisfaction and the quality of the services. Effectiveness refers to the extent at which the organization has achieved its main goals and objectives. Other components of productivity include variance and efficiency (Gupta, 2006). Productivity measures in the radiology department. Productivity in the radiology department aims at improving the services offered by the department. This is to ensure that the patients fully recover and develop no complications due to the treatment. Radiology involves more that ten imaging services performed on patients depending on their health needs. The time taken for each patient to be attended to is important when measuring productivity. The simplest method of measuring productivity is by monitoring the time taken for each procedure to be performed and also determining the length of the work shift. To determine productivity, the time allocated for each procedure is multiplied by the performance of the radiology examinations. This result is then divided by the length of the work shift. The results will indicate whether the workforce is enough or it should be increased. The issue is then referred o the managerial department for appropriate action. Calculating productivity in the Radiology Department The actual process of measuring productivity in the radiology department involves mathematical statistics by analyzing the raw data that is collected. The following data is usually collected for analysis: The total number of beds in the unit. The number of examinations performed to the patients within a given time. The number of employees in the radiology department. This mainly includes full time workers. The examination volume. Relative value units. Gross charges for patients. Volume per resource. Cost per relative unit Time taken to perform the examinations. The table below shows of statistics representing time taken to carry out processes and their productivity. RADIOLOGY PROCEDURES NUMBER OF PROCEDURES PERFORMED TIMETAKEN FOR EACH PROCEDURE ( hrs) PRODUCTIVITY Chest 5 3.333 0.025 Female genital system 4 0.433 0.154 Abdomen 10 3.033 0.055 Urinary 2 1.616 0.02 Respiration 18 7.933 0.038 Digestion 6 2.033 0.05 Extremities 2 4.266 0.0078 Head 3 5.2 0.0097 Aorta and arteries 2 0.966 0.034 Cardiovascular 8 7.05 0.09 Nervous system 3 2.2 0.02 Lymph and lymph nodes 5 1.816 0.045 Pelvic 6 3.966 0.025 Spinal canal 4 1.333 0.05 Genitalia 17 1.3667 0.21 TOTAL 95 47.8777 0.034 Series 1: Number of procedure performed Series 2: Time taken for each procedure (minutes) Calculations: Productivity = Number of procedures/Time taken Total productivity = Total number of procedures/Total time taken After obtaining the above data a statistical table is then drawn and the data is entered in columns. Their productivity is calculated and compared. A statistical graph is then plotted to show the results. The productivity results will then be used to determine the extent of the patient flow process and the solution to improving productivity. Conclusion Operations in the healthcare department are very critical according to the paper. This is because it determines how long some processes or procedures will take. According to the paper, patient flow is the most important process in the healthcare. This process occurs at every health facility. It is thus important to manage the process well for the purpose of benefiting the patients as well as the healthcare facility. The paper also highlights the important strategy that can help make the process more efficient and that is quality management. The process according to the paper is aimed at addressing the problem by eliminating the tedious and time consuming procedures. Productivity on the other hand is aimed at addressing efficiency of the operations management process and avoids losses and wastage. This is according to the paper. 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