Hospital Care
Hospital CareCritical Care Hospital - Case Study _
By: Diane M
Incident for Discussion: Critical Care Hospital Critical Care Hospital has
planned to purchase a CATSCAN within the next six months. Though not mentioned
in the text, the cost of the equipment will be at least several hundred
thousand dollars, and could even exceed one million dollars. Additionally,
major renovations are required to the radiology department where the equipment
will be housed. Unfortunately, the construction project cannot be started
until the machine is in place, which will be five months from now. The Project
Manager (\\\"PM\\\") feels that she may be able to expedite the construction
schedule by utilizing a resource allocation version of the Critical Path
Method (\\\"CPM\\\"). Getting the machine up and running is of great interest to the
hospital, as revenues generated by the CATSCAN are projected to be in the
range of $25,000 per monthAccording to the text, the project is slated to
have a duration of twelve months. The waiting time for the CATSCAN is five
months. This leaves the PM eight months to accomplish her goal. Given that the
equipment is arriving simultaneously with the onset of the construction
project, I would suggest a combination of a heuristic approach using an \\\"As
Late As Possible\\\" (\\\"ALAP\\\") prioritization with a fast-track approach to the
actual constructionThe reason for the ALAP approach is the five-month delay
prior to the equipment being delivered. Holding off on allocating resources
during this slow period should, in theory, allow the PM to reserve monetary
resources for the Crash period. I would imagine that part-time allocation of
administrative support, to solicit construction bids, generate reports and
management approval requests along with full-time PM participation would be
sufficient. The PM during this time will be working with hospital management
to generate a detailed project plan and Scope of Work. Several critical
elements come into play in this situation. For example, two relocations of the
existing radiology department, or at least the area that will house the
CATSCAN will be required during the construction period. The first will be for
the purpose of clearing the required space for the new CATSCAN area, including
construction corridors, to a temporary location. Then, after the equipment is
installed and renovations complete on this area, the rest of the department
will need to be renovated as well. This aspect of the project will require
extensive coordination with other departments within the hospital. This
includes administrative staff, medical personnel, suppliers (pick-ups and
deliveries), janitorial staff, and primarily the radiology staff itself.
During the first five months of the project I would suspect that this
coordination and planning alone would consume 50% of the PM\\\'s time. About 40%
of the time will be spent researching physical resource requirements of the
machine. This will include securing bids from contractors and reviewing them
from both a technical standpoint and from the perspective of the contractors
ability to allocate sufficient resources to meet the PM\\\'s objective. It will
also involve negotiating contracts, potentially establishing JIT relationships
with related suppliers as well. There are also issues such as public
relations, signage, noise and dust abatement, etc. that can be researched and
planned during this initial period. Once the machine has been delivered the
fast track scheduling begins. It seems to me to be the most effective way to
finish the project ahead of schedule. In this case, the primary issues are
going to be electrical and temperature control. Although full sets of drawings
were prepared ahead of time, there are bound to be a number of change orders
as the process continues. As stated in the text, while these changes are to be
expected, they are generally no more extensive than what is average for a
project handled in a more traditional manner. The hospital setting is ideal
for double or even triple shifts in the construction area, assuming noise
abatement is sufficient so as not to disturb patients. It is assumed that the
contractor who was awarded the job presented a Scope of Work that detailed how
they were going to complete the project within the PM\\\'s time frame. This is
where the allocation comes into play in my opinion, not in utilizing hospital
staff for the most part, but in reserving budgetary funds to pay premium rates
to the external contractor.
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