Part 1: Optimization in Staffing

Oscar is a healthcare administration leader who oversees the management of an ambulatory care clinic. Over the past 2 months, patient inflows have dramatically increased due to a recent shutdown of a neighboring care clinic. The patient inflows require that 90% of all nursing staff work overtime to ensure effective healthcare delivery. However, having 90% of the nursing workforce work overtime could be problematic in terms of patient quality and sfety. Oscar would like to determine how he can best optimize his current staff holdings to ensure a balance between quality patient care and safety.

Review the resources and be sure to focus on the Bastian et al. (2015) article. Reflect on the optimization problem mentioned in the article.

Post a brief summary in 2 or 3 paragraphs of the optimization problem presented in the Bastian et al. (2015) article. Be sure to include an explanation of the objective function, as well as what the constraints actually mean. Then, explain what was done well in the article, and identify where you found shortcomings in the article. Be specific, and provide examples.

Part 2 More Advanced Optimization

Advanced optimization techniques are often necessary to solve real problems in health care. Techniques like goal programming and data envelopment analysis are often used to solve multiple objective problems, such as minimizing cost while maximizing access measures. Other advanced techniques are often required for problems that sometimes seem straightforward. Although you may not encounter the use of advanced optimization techniques on a day-to-day basis, understanding the methodology and application of these techniques is a valuable skill for the healthcare administration leader.

For this Assignment, review the resources for this week. Reflect on, and consider, the advanced optimization techniques highlighted. Think about how you might apply these advanced optimization techniques to healthcare delivery challenges in a health services organization.

The Assignment: (3–5 pages)

• Complete Problem 80 (pharmaceutical company) and Problem 90 (brain tumor) on page 804 of your course text.

Note: You will be using Excel and Solver for this Assignment.

References:

Albright, S. C., & Winston, W. L. (2015). Business analytics: Data analysis and decision making (5th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

• Chapter 14, "Optimization Models" (pp. 718–811)

Bastian, N. D., McMurry, P., Fulton, L. V., Griffin, P. M., Cui, S., Hanson, T., & Srinivas, S. (2015). The AMEDD uses goal programming to optimize manpower planning decisions. Interfaces, 45(4), 305–324.

Part 3 Discussion: Quality Indicators in Long-Term Care and Home Health Care

How do quality standards for long-term care and home health care vary in comparison to quality standards for other types of health care organizations?

Many health care organizations are part of a general network or group of health care facilities that may include urgent and acute care centers as well as long-term care or home health care centers. Within the context of health care delivery, the focus usually tends to fall on hospitals and acute care centers. However, with advances in health care organizational structures and strides taken with the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model, most health care organizations are more a reflection of integrated health systems that offer services for urgent, acute care and long-term care and home health care services.

Review the quality indicators for long-term and home health care organizations in the resources for this week. Reflect on the measures obtained and how this may relate to your role as a health care executive in promoting effective and efficient health care delivery.

Post in 2 or 3 paragraphs an explanation of how quality standards for long-term and home health care facilities might differ. Then, explain how you, as a health executive at a hospital, might determine potential partners for an integrated health system that includes long-term care and home health care. Explain how the potential partners may help to reinforce the mission and vision of your health care organization. Then, explain how this type of partnership or integration may be reflective of social change for consumer-driven health care. Be specific and provide examples.

References:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (n.d.-a). About home health care compare data. Retrieved from https://www.medicare.gov/homehealthcompare/Data/About.html

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2015b). Nursing home quality initiative. Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/NursingHomeQualityInits/index.html

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2016b). Home health compare datasets. Retrieved from https://data.medicare.gov/data/home-health-compare

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2016d). Nursing home compare. Retrieved from https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html