Case 2. Shouldice Hospital Limited PDF

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Shouldice Hospital Limited

Operations Management Edwin Cruz-Vargas 63379 IMRE

1. How does Shouldice compete? Identify at least three characteristics of Shouldice’s operations that contribute to its competitiveness. When talking about medical institutions, reputation plays a main role. One of the key advantages for Shouldice Hospital is its prestige. Shouldice is a well-known hospital and this allows them to save extra money for marketing. However, there are some specific characteristics that also contribute on making Shouldice the main option for patients with hernia problems. - Quick recovery method. - Low prices, an average cost that rounds $1029 against other hospitals with costs of $2000 to $4000. -Warm and nice treatment to patients, which makes the surgery less traumatic.

2. Compute the cycle time (time per patient) and weekly capacity (Patients/week) for Examination room, Nurse’s station, Operating rooms, and Doctors. The maximum time per patient is assumed to calculate the cycles, obtaining the minimum capacity. The following table converges this information:

Time per patient (mins)

Working time

Units

Daily Capacity

Weekly Capacity

Examination room

20

120

6

36

180

Nurse's station

10

120

2

24

120

Operating rooms

45

-

6

30

150

Doctors (Examination)

20

120

12

72

360

The next tables allow to understand the 5 different cases of operation cycles, depending on the surgery day. (To ease the calculations a total of 90 beds will be assumed.) 1

2

3

Monday Tuesday

Surgery Post 1

In Surgery

In

Wednesday Thursday

Post 2 Out

Post 1 Post 2

Surgery Post 1

In Surgery

In

Out

Post 2 Out

Post 1 Post 2

Surgery Post 1

Out

Post 2

Friday Saturday Sunday

4

Out

In

Shouldice Hospital Current Capacity Monday Tuesday

In 30 30

Out 30 0

WiP 30 60

Usage (%) 33.33 66.67

Wednesday Thursday Friday

30 30 0

0 30 30

90 90 60

100 100 66.67

30 30

30 30

33.33 33.33

Saturday 0 Sunday 30 TOTAL 150

5

3. What was the average throughput rate (patients/week) of Shouldice hospital? As mentioned in page 10 of the text, the decline activity for the hospital relates to 145 surgeries per week (sur./week) and the peak of activity to 165. With this, an average of 155 sur./week, which divided in 5 days when surgeries are performed, a total of 31 sur./day could be accounted, in average. However, when calculating the cycles of surgery, and considering that the hospital only counts with 89 beds, it is better to use an average of 30 sur./day. 4. What is the maximum possible throughput rate of Shouldice hospital? According to what was calculated in point 2, the current capacity of Shouldice Hospital is 150 patients. Although, when including surgeries on Saturday, this can increase to 180 patients and optimize the usage of the available beds, as shown in the following table: Shouldice Hospital Capacity including Saturdays In Out WiP Usage (%) Monday 30 30 60 66.67 Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

30 30 30

30 0 30

60 60 90

66.67 66.67 100

Friday Saturday Sunday

30 0 30

30 30 30

90 60 60

100 66.67 66.67

TOTAL

180...