Discuss some ways that a hospital might measure quality. What are the potential costs of quality for Memorial Hospital? How could the value of a human life be included?

Welcome to Week Two of BUS 644, Operations Management. This week we will cover three topics as defined by our assigned readings in Chapters Three and Four of the Vonderembse& White (2013) textbook. Chapter Three relates to Enhancing Productivity and Chapter Four covers Quality Management. Again, all of these topics can form the basis for a complete semester-long course in college so our coverage of these topics will highlight some of the central elements of the subject matter rather than make us certified experts in the field. Keep in mind that the supplemental information contained in the textbook will provide a substantial amount of “Value Added Information” that will improve your understanding of these core concepts. Furthermore, it will help build and strengthen your managerial tool kit as you prepare to enter the world of OM.

While I was reviewing the topic for this week, I located a reference in the Ashford eBrary that may help us as we begin our discussion of enhancing productivity and its role in building an effective organization. Within the source entitled: Power of strategic commitment: Achieving extraordinary results through total alignment and engagement by Weiss, Leibner, &Mader (2009), I captured three quotes directly from this particular book for our use. I also used the eBrary copy function to capture these three quotes and import them into this document. The nice thing about this Copy Function within eBrary is that it not only captures the complete source information along with the highlighted text, it also generates a hyperlink that we can use to take us directly back to the source in the selected reference publication so we may review and expand our own research as needed. When you get a chance this week, I suggest you try this function to augment your own research as you prepare your responses to this week’s discussion questions and paper on the Memorial Hospital.

Here is the first of the three quotes I captured.

There is no excuse for undertaking any major strategic change without expecting a return on that investment, and investing in generating strategic commitment is no exception. In fact, when strategic commitment is present, we have consistently seen extraordinary results in key categories such as 1) financial performance, 2) customer service, satisfaction, and loyalty, 3) quality, 4) safety, 5) innovation, 6) cross-functional collaboration, 7) mergers and acquisitions, and 8) employee morale, loyalty, and satisfaction (Weiss, Leibner, &Mader, 2009, p. 145).

The hyperlink for the Weiss, Leibner, &Mader resource in the Ashford eBrary system is shown below. Try the link to see if you can also go directly to the source, as I was able to do. I would be very interested in hearing your responses, positive or negative.

Now let’s take a look at the authors’ statement itself. It deals with commitment by the organization (i.e. people within the organization) and the range of categories that touch the organization when the business plans are being implemented. It may seem like each of these categories are somewhat independent and they may not appear to share very much in the way of resources, costs, infrastructure, and personnel. But the fact of the matter is that each of these categories share multiple interdependencies that must be considered if productivity improvements and the corresponding employee commitments are to be successful. The universal shared resource is profitability for most organizations. Even non-profit organizations must cover their pure costs in order to remain viable as an organization. Other shared resources must be managed including facilities, support personnel, administrative and security personnel, and other organizational assets. How many more functional categories can you identify?

The second quote that I found interesting is:

Toyota implements 5,000 employee ideas a week and runs some of the safest operations in the world. They have overtaken General Motors not merely as a function of having better-designed vehicles, but by having products that customers know are reliable and employees who take ownership rather than act out of mere compliance. Companies that generate an environment of strategic commitment begin to elevate awareness and embed quality in everything they do (Weiss, Leibner, &Mader, 2009, p. 148.).

Ashford eBrary hot link:

The thing that caught my eye in this quote is not the mere fact that 5000 employee ideas are implemented into the Toyota system each week. Instead, it is the underlying philosophy that Toyota employs to empower their workers with the ability to recommend and implement these suggestions to move the company forward as they continue to improve the quality and reliability of their products. How does the Toyota management style differ from a traditional Western-style management structure?

When Strategic Planning Meets Strategic Commitment

The approach taken in developing a strategic plan has everything to do with generating strategic commitment within the organization. As discussed in chapter 3 [of Weiss, Leibner, &Mader, 2009], there are many different methods for articulating the content of a strategy: Vision, mission, BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goals), best-in-class, strategic intent— to mention a few of the popular ones— they can all be effective methods depending on how they are applied (Weiss, Leibner, &Mader, 2009, p. 158.).

Ashford eBrary hot link:

Within this third quote, a key indicator for success in any process improvement initiative is apparent. That key factor is the commitment that employees and managers have to their productivity improvement strategies, regardless of the terms that are used to describe them. As you continue your reading this week, consider the impact that these strategies have on the success of all other initiatives within the organization, especially regarding Ethical Issues in Business, Business Processes, Operations, Productivity, Product Design, and Quality. Fundamentally, productivity improvement initiatives must be known to the employees, they must be well articulated, manageable, achievable (with appropriate allocations of resources), and they must consistently (and fairly) applied to every facet of the organization.

Looking Ahead to Week Three (and beyond) in BUS 644

In accordance with the course syllabus, continue reading the assigned chapters from the Vonderembse& White textbook (Week Three – Chapters Five and Six) and be sure to complete all written assignments in Week Three (Suppliers, Forecasting Methods, and Outsourcing). As you prepare your written responses each week, plan to use additional resources from the AU eBrary site that will allow others to have immediate and complete access to your resources. For sources outside of the eBrary system, be sure to provide the complete citations for all such resources. Whenever possible, also provide a hyperlink in your response that will point us toward your specific sources. Insure you satisfy the weekly participation standards within the online discussion forum, as specified in each weekly assignment.

Sources Cited:

Stevenson, W.J. (2009). Operations management (10th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin.

Vonderembse, M.A & White, G. P. (2013). Operations management. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Weiss, A., Leibner, J. &Mader, G. (2009). Power of strategic commitment: Achieving extraordinary results through total alignment and engagement. Saranac Lake, NY: AMACOM Books.

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Memorial Hospital

Read the “Memorial Hospital” case study in Chapter 4 of your text. In a three-page paper, respond to the guided response below.

Discuss ways that a hospital might measure quality. Be sure to explain your reasoning.
Explain the potential costs and failures of quality for Memorial Hospital and discuss how each can be measured.
Discuss ideas or techniques from TQM that Janice could use to help Memorial focus on providing quality health care.
Analyze the methods Memorial could use to assess the quality of health care it is providing.
Your paper should be in paragraph form (avoid the use of bullet points) and supported with the concepts outlined in your text and additional scholarly sources.

Submit your three- to four-page paper (not including the title and reference pages). Your paper must be formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center and must cite at least three scholarly sources in addition to the textbook.

Carefully review the for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment

CHAPTER 4

Case Studies

Memorial Hospital

Memorial Hospital is a privately owned 600-bed facility. The hospital provides a broad range of health care services, including complete laboratory and X-ray facilities, an emergency room, an intensive care unit, a cardiac care unit, and a psychiatric ward. Most of these services are provided by several other hospitals in the metropolitan area. Memorial has purposely avoided getting involved in any specialized fields of medicine or obtaining very specialized diagnostic equipment because it was felt that such services would not be cost-effective. The General Hospital, located only a few miles from Memorial, is affiliated with the local School of Medicine and offers up-to-date services in those specialized areas. Instead of trying to compete with General Hospital to provide special services, Memorial Hospital has concentrated on offering high-quality general health care at an affordable price. Compared with the much larger General Hospital, Memorial stresses close personal attention to each patient from a nursing staff that cares about its work. In fact, the hospital has begun to place ads in newspapers and on television, stressing its patient-oriented care.

However, the hospital’s administrator, Janice Fry, is concerned about whether the hospital can really deliver on its promises, and worries that failure to provide the level of health care patients expect could drive patients away. Janice met recently with the hospital’s managerial personnel to discuss her concerns. The meeting raised some questions about how the hospital’s quality of health care could be assured. Jessica Tu, director of nursing, raised the question, “How do we measure the quality of health care? Do we give patients a questionnaire when they leave, asking if they were happy here? That does not seem to answer the question because we could make a patient happy, but give them lousy health care.” Several other questions were asked concerning the hospital’s efforts to keep costs down. Some people were concerned that an emphasis on costs would be detrimental to quality. They argued that when a person’s life is at stake, costs should not be of concern.

After the meeting, Janice began thinking about these questions. She remembered reading recently that some companies were using total quality management (TQM) to improve their quality. She liked the idea—if it could be used in a hospital.

Discuss some ways that a hospital might measure quality.
What are the potential costs of quality for Memorial Hospital? How could the value of a human life be included?
Are there any ideas or techniques from TQM that Janice could use to help Memorial focus on providing quality health care?
What measures could Memorial use to assess the quality of health care it is providing?

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