Main description:

Focused Operations Management for Health Services Organizations offers managers and staff the practical knowledge and tools they need to accomplish much more within existing resources. This text identifies common bottlenecks and constraints and focuses on the critical issues and processes faced by managers in the health care field. The book provides tools to significantly improve organizational operations as well as enhance quality and customer satisfaction without increasing the use of physical, human, and financial resources.

The authors have extensive experience in successfully applying these tools and methods to many organizations worldwide. Focused Operations Management for Health Services Organizations is filled with proven methods, including the theory of constraints, that can yield fast improvements in systems such as operating rooms and emergency departments. In addition, the book shows how simple tools like the focusing table, the focusing matrix, the complete kit concept, and Pareto analysis can increase throughput, reduce response time, and create value in health care organizations.

"There is a huge gap between knowledge of operations management in other industries and health care. This book, long overdue, closes the gap. It has a unique blend of the necessary theory and many practical tools. I have no doubt that it will soon be on the desks of many professors, students, clinicians, and hospital managers."
Eugene Litvak, professor of health and operations management, School of Management, and director, Program for Managing Variability in Health Care Delivery, Health Policy Institute, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.

Back cover:

Focused Operations Management for Health Services Organizations offers managers and staff the practical knowledge and tools they need to accomplish much more within existing resources. This text identifies common bottlenecks and constraints and focuses on the critical issues and processes faced by managers in the health care field. The book provides tools to significantly improve organizational operations as well as enhance quality and customer satisfaction without increasing the use of physical, human, and financial resources.

The authors have extensive experience in successfully applying these tools and methods to many organizations worldwide. Focused Operations Management for Health Services Organizations is filled with proven methods, including the theory of constraints, that can yield fast improvements in systems such as operating rooms and emergency departments. In addition, the book shows how simple tools like the focusing table, the focusing matrix, the complete kit concept, and Pareto analysis can increase throughput, reduce response time, and create value in health care organizations.

"There is a huge gap between knowledge of operations management in other industries and health care. This book, long overdue, closes the gap. It has a unique blend of the necessary theory and many practical tools. I have no doubt that it will soon be on the desks of many professors, students, clinicians, and hospital managers."
Eugene Litvak, professor of health and operations management, School of Management, and director, Program for Managing Variability in Health Care Delivery, Health Policy Institute, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.

Contents:

Figures and Tables.

Foreword (Donald M. Berwick).

Preface.

About the Authors.

PART ONE: THE DYNAMIC HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENT.

1. The Modern Health Care and Business Environment.

2. Principles of Management in a Dynamic Environment.

3. The Pareto Rule, Focusing Table, and Focusing Matrix.

PART TWO: NOVEL MANAGEMENT APPROACHES.

4. Management by Constraints: The Focusing Steps of the Theory of Constraints.

5. Management by Constraints in a Bottleneck Environment.

6. Management by Constraints When the Market Is the Constraint.

7. Focused Current Reality Tree.

8. Resolving Managerial Conflicts.

9. The Efficiencies Syndrome.

10. The Evils of Long Response Times.

11. Reducing Response Times.

12. The Complete Kit Concept.

13. Performance Measures and Managerial Control.

14. Effects of Fluctuations, Variability, and Uncertainty on the System.

15. The Evils of Traditional Cost Accounting.

16. Marketing, Costing, and Pricing Considerations in Decision–Making Processes.

17. Quality Management and Process Control.

PART THREE: STRATEGY AND VALUE CREATION.

18. Creating Value for Health Care Organizations.

PART FOUR: SUMMARY.

19. Case Study: The Emergency Department at Guard Mountain Hospital.

20. Our Managerial Credo.

References.

Index.