Complaints have come to the department manager regarding timeliness of requests for patient information and a decision must be made. Three months ago, Community Hospital opened a 24-hour urgent-care center 10 miles away in a rapidly growing community. Kent Jones, the health information services manager, took part in the planning that included the use of a combined record and one patient identification number. The decision was made to allow electronic sharing of patient records between the facilities; however, at present it is necessary to fax some portions of the record upon request. In the past month, Kent has received four complaints from the urgent care center that records were not faxed in a timely manner. There are 26 employees in health information services. Three full-time employees care for record activity during the day, with one employee devoted to record activity during the evening shift, when a team leader and four other employees are usually in the department. During the 11 P.M, to 7 A.M. shift, one employee cares for the department and picks up the discharged records from the patient care units. This time away from the department averages 1 hour. Adding additional employees is not an option, since there is a hiring freeze in place. Kent envisions an increase in the requests for record information as the patient load at the urgent-care center increases, and realizes the assumption of his management team that this activity could be absorbed without adjusting work schedules was in error. Do you feel team decision making would be a good option to evaluate these issues? Why or why not?

Practical Management Science
6th Edition
ISBN:9781337406659
Author:WINSTON, Wayne L.
Publisher:WINSTON, Wayne L.
Chapter12: Queueing Models
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 59P
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Complaints have come to the department manager regarding timeliness of requests for patient information and a decision must be made.

Three months ago, Community Hospital opened a 24-hour urgent-care center 10 miles away in a rapidly growing community. Kent Jones, the health information services manager, took part in the planning that included the use of a combined record and one patient identification number. The decision was made to allow electronic sharing of patient records between the facilities; however, at present it is necessary to fax some portions of the record upon request. In the past month, Kent has received four complaints from the urgent care center that records were not faxed in a timely manner.

There are 26 employees in health information services. Three full-time employees care for record activity during the day, with one employee devoted to record activity during the evening shift, when a team leader and four other employees are usually in the department. During the 11 P.M, to 7 A.M. shift, one employee cares for the department and picks up the discharged records from the patient care units. This time away from the department averages 1 hour. Adding additional employees is not an option, since there is a hiring freeze in place.

Kent envisions an increase in the requests for record information as the patient load at the urgent-care center increases, and realizes the assumption of his management team that this activity could be absorbed without adjusting work schedules was in error.



Do you feel team decision making would be a good option to evaluate these issues? Why or why not?

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