Homework: Applying Methods of Process Improvement to Improve Productivity
What is process improvement and how does it relate to HSOs? As a current or future health care administrator, you will champion efforts aimed at ensuring effective system processes that contribute to effective health care delivery. One of the challenging aspects of engaging in process improvement activities involves determining which components make up the system of the HSO and how to best address inefficiencies or process gaps as they contribute to health care delivery. Additionally, as a current or future health care administrator, you must also consider the implications of inefficiencies in system processes as they relate to business goals.
You examine process improvement and implementation by analyzing different approaches HSOs might implement for process improvement. You also create a fish bone diagram in this week's Homework as a way to consider how such tools may contribute to an understanding of implementation approaches for HSOs.
Consider the following scenario:
Terry is a senior histology lab technician at a large urban hospital. He is responsible for overseeing a team of six junior technicians to process samples for testing. Recently, the hospital has introduced a new process whereby the senior histology lab technician must visually accept and approve the findings of the junior technicians in order for samples to be cleared and entered into the electronic health record for disease diagnosis. Terry has been able to meet this new need for the past few months. However, as more cases are entering the histology lab, cases have started to become backlogged. Additionally, the histology lab hours are restricted to business hours; this has severely impacted the processing of histology samples. Terry is worried that the approval process is not efficient and that perhaps a second senior histology lab technician should be hired to meet around-the-clock demand.
As a current or future health care administrator, how might you address the productivity lag in the histology lab in the scenario?
For this Homework, review Case 2, "Noninvasive Cardiovascular Laboratory" in Chapter 8 of the text, Managing Health Services Organizations and Systems. Reflect on how you, as a current or future health care administrator, might be required to identify opportunities to improve productivity in an HSO. What types of information might you need to gather? How might you identify whether a process improvement opportunity exists? Then, review the Case Questions document in this week's Learning Resources to complete the Homework.
Chapter 8, Case 2: "Noninvasive Cardiovascular Laboratory"
Task:
1) Is Findley overworked? Why or why not? Should another technician be hired?
2) Assume that there is no budget to add a new technician. How should the current NCVL process be changed to improve quality and productivity?
3) Draw a cause-and-effect (fishbone) diagram of the reasons Findley's work is inefficient.
4) Draw a flow diagram showing the steps in the process(es) for Findley's work.
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
(1) The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
(2) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
(3) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.