JAH DQ2
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Grand Canyon University *
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Health Science
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Nov 24, 2024
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Uploaded by fnlmutuku
Three major capacity considerations for a hospital
Hospital Infrastructure
– From the number of beds, medicines, medical
equipment and other supply to the operating room, emergency room,
ICU, and availability of other departments, hospital capacity will vary
depending on size, location, structure, lay-out, and design. Bigger
hospitals with more services and their own departments have larger
capacity and can accommodate more patients compared to small to
medium size hospitals with a limited capacity. Thus, the difference in
total capacity between hospitals with different infrastructure.
Nature of activities/Treatment complexity
– Similarly, a hospital’s
nature of medical services is another capacity consideration. General
hospitals’ capacity would differ from specialized hospitals devoted to
treatment of a chronic illness, injury, or infirmity. Even between
specialized hospitals, capacity between children’s hospital, mental
hospital, and cancer hospital will differ due to restrictions and in-
patient guidelines. In addition, the complexity of the treatment for
each patient would differ including the duration of the medical care.
The number of visits and frequency of medical care required would also
vary between patients with common and easily treated illnesses and
patients with severe illnesses.
Occupancy and capacity utilization
– Lastly, hospitals must consider
the current occupancy rate. With high occupancy levels, the hospital
may not be able to take on more emergency services referring other
patients to nearby hospitals or worse, operating at full capacity with
longer waiting times and tired medical team. As capacity utilization
increases, the hospital’s current output rate is near the best operating
level, negative consequence would be decrease in service quality and
patient’s disliking the service (Jacobs & Chase, 2020).
Hospital capacity considerations vs factory capacity consideration
Hospital as service providers is subject to more capacity consideration and
must consider service quality. Unlike factory, services are intangible and thus
can’t be manufactured, stored, and readily available with multiple supplies
compared to that of durable and physical goods. Factory primarily have an
advantage prior to manufacturing regarding consumer demand forecast and
reliable market research data for capacity planning. Moreover, since goods
are tangible, factories can utilize inventory when storing goods during
production thus being able to easily store and produce goods in surplus.
Mass produced goods often require less specialization and time consideration
than medical providers must provide depending on patient’s needs. Sudden
increases in demand causing more supply production would benefit the
factory with economies of scale and economies of scope whereas hospitals
must maintain a high-capacity utilization rate without sacrificing service
quality. Lastly, hospitals faced daily changes when patients may
simultaneously require services while factory are afforded production level
flexibility when customer demand change during production.
Reference:
Jacobs, F. R., & Chase, R. B. (2020).
Operations and supply chain
managemen
t (16th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. ISBN-13:
9781264091676
Rechel, B., Wright, S., Barlow, J., & McKee, M. (2010). Hospital capacity
planning: from measuring stocks to modelling flows.
Bull World Health
Organ, 88
(8):632-6.
https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.09.073361
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