You are an administrative staff specialist newly employed by the hospital to act
ID: 408842 • Letter: Y
Question
You are an administrative staff specialist newly employed by the hospital to act as a management engineer and address a number of issues relating to operating efficiency Your first assignment is to analyze work methods and staffing in the central sterile supply division of materials management. The department was tingled out for study for the following reasons: The manager-a registered nurse who has held the job for more that 25 years' has requested two more processing aides, although her staff b already one person larger than that of another area hospital of equivalent size There has been a recent, seemingly unexplainable, upturn in the consumption of disposables. A number of storage shelves appear to be stocked to overflowing with infrequently used items. The department issues frequent rush orders to obtain needed items that has completely run out. Observed conditions in the department include an overcrowded storage area, a seemingly inadequate decontamination area, and a grossly oversized processing area referred co by most employees as "the ballroom." On your initial visit to the department, the first thing the manager says to you is. "So you're the one who's going to tell us what we're doing wrong?" Her tone a none too friendly. Instructions Develop a proposed approach to a complete study of the department, including the "sales pitch" you would use to tty to win the manager's cooperation and suppon. specifying what should be done, why it should be done, and how you propose to address the inevitable resistance of both manager and staff.Explanation / Answer
1).The manager has asked for an extra aide in processing:
The problem seems that the overload of work has crossed all limits. The work schedule management has not been implemented properly
Remedy:
To manage the database and connect with the correct personnel. The idea will be to develop a system where the work assigned will be recorded and stored for further usage and review.
2).Huge upturn in the consumption of disposables:
The problem is that the stock records are not maintained properly. The forecasting system has not been designed to get real time data for ordering. As a result the ordering sporadic though the demand might have risen. Due to inadequacy of the data we do nothave a count or allotment of the disposable.
Remedy:
A proper forecasting with reference to the historical data and taking into the account the seasonal changes in demand should be put into place.
3).Overflow of frequently used items:
The use of items have not been considered. The result is that the scattering of the items and the time taken to find any item is more. Proper sorting is missing and the segregation of the items have not been done of the inventory. Thelocation have not been identified.
Remedy:
Use of the ABC analysis of the inventory will locate the highly used items, the medium used items and the low usage items. The shelves should be set according to the usage and the store layout needs to be changed.
4).Inventory running out:
This situation of inventory running out is known as stock outs and this damages the reliability of the supply chain. Thestock outs are happening due to inefficient planning and this has been the reason for the run out of materials. The costs have also seen an increase due to buying on emergency basis.
Remedy:
The need for planning and to determine the movement frequency of the materials is of utmost importance. The Kanban method can be used where a card is placed for a certain level of inventory, as soon as the stock dives below the card an alarm is generated and this marks the ordering phase of that material.
5).The oversized areas and the undersized areas:
The lack of location planning and layout strategies have been clearly seen and the result is that the population density is not uniform. The lack of planning in the space layout have clearly led to the loss of revenues
Remedy:
The need to change the areas and alternate naming according to the number of people visiting the areas. The Processing area can be redesigned or revamped to accommodate the storage area and can share space with the decontamination area. The processing area needs less space and so can be shifted to the decontamination area.
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