Goals and Approaches of Health Care Operations Management

To make the best use of the concepts and tools of operations analysis, a manager must understand what health care operations management actually encompasses.

For this Discussion, you are asked to summarize the functions and goals of operations management and explain how quantitative analysis can further operational aims in a selected health care setting.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review the various descriptions in this week's Learning Resources about the aims and functions of operations analysis and management. Pay particular attention to Table 1-1 on page 7 ("Key Functions and Issues in Healthcare Operations Management") in the Langabeer text and Table 1-3 on page 25 ("Roles and Trends in Healthcare Operations Management"), as well as to the descriptions in Chapter 2 of hospital business operations (pages 41-44). How would you summarize the purpose of operations management?
• Make a note of insights that you gain from this week's media segments on the role of operations management within health care organizations.Review pages 17-19 in the Langabeer text noting in particular the scientific and mathematical concepts that serve as the foundation of the operations management discipline. Consider the ways in which quantitative analysis or other scientific approaches would make a difference in operations management.
• Select one type of health care setting of interest to you (e.g., community hospital, academic hospital, nursing home, home care agency, assisted living, ambulatory surgery/diagnostic center, and so on). Identify ways that data or quantitative analysis is being used, or could be used, to address significant operational issues in this setting.
  Note: If you need help identifying how quantitative analysis is contributing in your selected health care settings, do a search through the Walden Library. Review recent issues of the journal Healthcare Management Science or other journals and trade magazines that focus on your selected health care setting. Read through abstracts to get a sense of operational issues that are being addressed through quantitative approaches. You are also encouraged to review the supplemental readings listed this week from previous required textbooks in MHA 6115 and MHA 6160, with an eye to these applications of quantitative methods.

Post by Day 4 a response to the following:

• Briefly describe the scope and purpose of operations management within health care organizations.Summarize a significant insight that you gained from this week's media segments regarding challenges or objectives of operations management.
• Identify the health care setting you selected. Explain one or two specific ways that quantitative analysis is contributing, or could contribute, to the aims of operations management in your selected health care setting.

Read a selection of your colleagues' postings.

Respond by Day 6 to at least one of your colleagues' postings in one or more of the following ways:

• Ask a probing question.Expand on the colleague's posting with additional insight and resources.
• Offer polite disagreement or critique, supported with evidence.

In addition to, but not in place of the above, you may:

• Offer and support an opinion.Validate an idea with your own experience.
• Make a suggestion or comment that guides or facilitates the Discussion.

Return to this Discussion in a few days to read the responses to your initial posting. Note what you have learned and/or any insights you have gained as a result of the comments your colleagues made. No posting is required.