Details of Your Next Assignment
In this assignment, you will help Carol Gardner deal with four specific scheduling problems. She provides you with the following information.
"The first scheduling problem has to do with patient assignments. At the start of each shift, we make primary patient assignments. As you know, not every nurse is as efficient as another nurse with particular types of patients. I have time estimates as to how long it takes each nurse to do certain tasks. The problem now is assigning each of the six nurses on duty to the six patients in the ward. Take a look at the Hours Required to Accomplish Routine Tasks Chart (select Medical/Surgical Dept) that I have developed and determine the best nursing assignments."
"The second scheduling problem comes from Susie in the Intensive Care Unit. She wants you to help her schedule the 3:00 - 11:00 p.m. shift nurses for the next five weeks. The schedule must meet the demand requirements and guarantee each nurse two consecutives days off during the week. Nurses will rotate weekend shifts. Using the ICU Nursing Requirements Data (select Medical/Surgical Dept) and the staff list of ICU nurses on the website, develop the best possible schedule that you can for Susie."
"The third scheduling problem comes from Gail in the blood bank. She needs help in scheduling the volunteers working in the hospital's blood bank. A volunteer must have two consecutive days off per week. Take a look at the Data of Blood Bank volunteers (select Volunteers). Suggest a schedule that Gail could use in assigning volunteers to work in the Blood Bank on the different days of the week."
"The last problem is a recurring scheduling problem that is typical of the Business Office. Cost reports are received in the Billing Office twice daily from throughout the hospital and they are processed into claims to be sent to various insurance carriers First, each report is reviewed by Naomi Engles and then given to Data Entry to be keyed into the database. Don Matby has assembled relevant data shown in the Cost Reports Processing Time Chart (select Billing Office). It contains typical data on the cost reports that arrive in each mail delivery, and the estimated processing time (in minutes) for each cost report. Naomi usually processes the reports in the order in which they appear in her in-box. Her goal is get the entire batch processed as soon as possible."
Assignment Questions
1. Using the Hours Required to Accomplish Tasks chart, determine the optimal schedule for assigning each of the six nurses to the six patients in the ward.
2. Based on the ICU Nursing Requirements data, develop the best schedule for nurses on the 3:00 - 11:00 p.m. shift for the next 5 weeks.
3. Using the chart of the daily number of volunteers needed at the blood bank, along with the list of volunteers, illustrate how to schedule the volunteer staff.
4. Using the Cost Reports Processing Time chart, answer the following questions:
If Naomi takes the ten reports in the chart as representing the order received, how long will it take to get all ten reports into the system?
Is there a better order in which to process the reports? Develop a better schedule and calculate how much time is saved.
Show any time periods when Naomi or the data entry people are idle.