The Palmer Centre for Alternative Therapy
Jane and Andrew Palmer run a business in Florida that they describe as an ‘alternative therapy centre'. Their treatments range from fairly traditional ones, such as osteopathy, to more experimental ones that work with the body's ‘energy pathways'. Their clients have a range of problems of different severity and symptoms, but in practice their main concern is people who suffer from long-term back problems. The Palmer Centre employs a receptionist who deals with around 20 customers an hour. 70% of these only ask for information and the receptionist can deal with them in a couple of minutes. The remainder are actual patients. Each patient takes about three minutes to give the receptionist information before moving on to consultations with either Jane or Andrew. Roughly two-thirds of patients see Andrew, who spends around 15 minutes with each; the rest see Jane, who spends around 20 minutes with each. After they have finished treatment, the patients return to the receptionist, who takes two minutes to collect information, prepare bills and arrange followup appointments. This arrangement seems to work well, but some patients complain of having to wait. This is particularly important because the Palmers are thinking of expanding and employing another therapist. They will have to do some marketing to attract new clients, but realise that alternative treatments are becoming more popular and finding new business should not be difficult. For the expansion they will have to make some changes to the centre, and build another office and waiting area for the new therapist. If the expansion is a success, they might be tempted to expand even more in the future. This raises the questions of how many offices the centre will need for varying levels of demand and how big the waiting areas should be.
Questions
1. How can you judge the current performance of the centre?
2. Can you find the resources that the centre will need to maintain - or improve - the current level of service with increasing numbers of patients?