MGH Assignment
MGSC6206 Service/Manufacturing Operation Management SEC 03 - Fall 2014
Mass General Hospital: CABG Surgery (A) Case Analysis
1. What are the primary challenges in improving operating processes in a health care environment?
In the healthcare environment, improving operating processes is tie to effective cost control if not cost cutting. This is a very crucial undertaking for hospitals and many healthcare organizations. But there are many challenges that come with the process of improving operating processes. First, costs in all aspects of operations and any changes that might be initiated with a hospital poses greater challenges due to the extensive use of financial resources or discretionary spending which might be linked to complicated private, government reimbursements methods. More challenges in improving operating processes have to do with staffing or human resources. As we saw in the case, the success of the implementation of the care path for example, was tie to the “buy in” of all the departments’ staff. This is critical and costly in terms of FTEs (Full time employees). There would be additional staff to train, or specializations which is challenging in a new environment. With the care path implementation requiring change in behaviors, processes and practices, the challenges didn’t lie in this initiative but in convincing staff to adopt it as a more effective way of conducting the CABG. This would require additional resources, change in the cost structure and uniformity of processes. This new approach in a new environment is in itself a challenge because the healthcare environment especially hospital like MGH lacked standardization of many processes.
2. What is a care path? What are its specific features? What does it not do?
Care path, also referred to as critical path, is one of the main tools used to manage quality in healthcare using standardization of care processes. It implementation aimed to reduce the variability in clinical practices, costs while
Mass General Hospital: CABG Surgery (A) Case Analysis
1. What are the primary challenges in improving operating processes in a health care environment?
In the healthcare environment, improving operating processes is tie to effective cost control if not cost cutting. This is a very crucial undertaking for hospitals and many healthcare organizations. But there are many challenges that come with the process of improving operating processes. First, costs in all aspects of operations and any changes that might be initiated with a hospital poses greater challenges due to the extensive use of financial resources or discretionary spending which might be linked to complicated private, government reimbursements methods. More challenges in improving operating processes have to do with staffing or human resources. As we saw in the case, the success of the implementation of the care path for example, was tie to the “buy in” of all the departments’ staff. This is critical and costly in terms of FTEs (Full time employees). There would be additional staff to train, or specializations which is challenging in a new environment. With the care path implementation requiring change in behaviors, processes and practices, the challenges didn’t lie in this initiative but in convincing staff to adopt it as a more effective way of conducting the CABG. This would require additional resources, change in the cost structure and uniformity of processes. This new approach in a new environment is in itself a challenge because the healthcare environment especially hospital like MGH lacked standardization of many processes.
2. What is a care path? What are its specific features? What does it not do?
Care path, also referred to as critical path, is one of the main tools used to manage quality in healthcare using standardization of care processes. It implementation aimed to reduce the variability in clinical practices, costs while