Page 1 |
Previous | 1 of 4 | Next |
|
This page
All
Subset
|
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT: The multiplicity of indictments relating to the "health care crisis" have been publicized to the hilt and beyond. It would serve no purpose to rehash them here. Nor would it be useful to dwell on such factors as escalating labor, research, equipment and construction costs or frequent conflicts between the medical and administrative professionals. However, out of all the dialogue and monologues emerge two hard unalterable facts. Whatever the underlying causes, health care costs continue to grow faster than almost any other item in our economy. Concurrently, pressures for less costly health care delivery continue to build from powerful consumer, labor, employer and government factions. These facts lead the health care institution—supported largely by public funds—to the following management strategy: install an effective management process to control costs. Is such a management process achievable? The evidence proves that it is. By introducing proven management tools, health care facility and delivery costs can be reduced, inflation or not, and the quality of service can be improved. OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT: THE CONCEPT Management tools long used to control costs range from budget analysis, rate restructuring and purchase deferment to study committees, revamped services and, in a highly labor-intensive industry, personnel reduc tions. Other modern management tools and strategies are being employed such as work measurement, computerized processing and record keeping, satellite clinics, mer-gers and joint ventures, and regionalized health care delivery. In some cases, costs are being better con trolled. More often, efforts employing these tools and strategies are fragmented and ineffective. Only infrequently has the integrated management approach—Operations Management—been applied to the problem of cost containment. Experience has shown that Operations Management can be a workable approach to cost containment. What is Operations Management? It starts with the definition of the health care needs of individuals and the community being served. With health care needs as a springboard, meaningful health care delivery objectives [are set. The target, of course, is quality health care delivery at minimum cost. Operations Management em-j phasizes the real environment in which change is to be ! effected. It does not attempt to propose cost contain-jment approaches beyond the capacity or capabilities : of those persons responsible for implementing them. At the hub of Operations Management is the identification of operating service levels required for the specific functions within the hospital operation. Traditionally, service levels, while vaguely understood, are not explicitly defined. Service level definition is crucial if we are to establish concrete goals and monitor milestones in reaching them. the key to cost containment by Kenneth G. Myers
Object Description
Title |
Operations Management: the key to cost containment |
Author |
Myers, Kenneth G. |
Subject |
Health services administration |
Office/Department |
Touche Ross. Detroit Office |
Citation |
Tempo, Vol. 18, no. 3 (1972/73, winter), p. 19-22 |
Date-Issued | 1972/73 |
Source | Originally published by: Touche Ross, & Co. |
Rights | Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte |
Type | Text |
Format | PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2010 |
Language | eng |
Identifier | Tempo_1972_Winter-p19-22 |