Hospital Management: Enhancing Efficiency, Supply Chain & Patient Care

This report delves into the critical aspects of hospital management, emphasizing the importance of operation management in enhancing organizational efficiency, profitability, and patient satisfaction. It explores various operation management practices such as upgrading equipment, improving communication and coordination, generating revenue, and providing training to employees. The report also examines the impact of operation management on work processes within the NHS, focusing on patient flow, drug supply, and medical documentation. Furthermore, it discusses supply chain and inventory management concepts to improve operation, highlighting the need for demand-driven models and efficient order placement. The report identifies key issues experienced in hospital management, including hospital productivity, monetary challenges, providing the best customer care, and ensuring hospital security and safety maintenance, while also providing potential resolutions to these issues. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources for students.

Running head: HOSPITAL MANAGMENT
Hospital Management
Nam of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Operation management practices:....................................................................................................2
Impact of operation management on information flow:..............................................................4
Supply chain and inventory management concepts to improve operation......................................5
Issues experienced and resolution...................................................................................................7
Operations mana..........................................................................................................................7
Hospital productivity and corresponding monetary challenges:.................................................7
Providing the best customer care:................................................................................................8
Hospital security and Safety maintenance:................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference List................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Operation management is essentially an integral part of each business organizations. It
incorporates the entire flow of work and all the departments like planning, processing,
organizing and supervising (Parisio, Rikos & Glielmo 2016, pp. 24-27). A stable and sound
operation management reflects a flourished organization that embarks upon the facets like higher
profitability, good market share and brand equity. Operation management apart from planning
and processing is also responsible for implementing necessary changes within an organization so
that the marginal profit of the organization is increased.
Emergency route map
Operation management practices:
The basic practices of operation management are as follows
Upgrading equipments: Operation managers are responsible to analyze and evaluate the core
functions in an organization. At the same time, the operation managers are also responsible to
examine the equipments that can be used in the organizational context to increase the workflow.

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Communication Coordination: Operation managers look into communication process in an
organization. The better communication is structured, the better is the production of an
organization. Communication plays a key role in the production of any organization. Similarly,
miscommunication at the same time can hamper an organization’s production and sales. At
times, it can even harm the profits and revenue of a company. While at a time it speeds up the
pace of work, at other time communication is also responsible for gross failure. Thus, it is a
business tool that is handled with care by the operation managers (Gopee & Galloway 2017).
Revenue generation: The operation management does Bills, payments and the intake of cash.
The motto of the operation management in this context is to keep hard cash so that that can be
used in need.
Training: This is another important practice done by operation management. Operation
managers coordinates with the human resource department to figure out innovative processes
through which the employees of the organization can be trained. Thus making the employees
more focused towards the organizational goals (Dobrzykowski et al., 2014 pp.201-214).
Operation management and its impact on work process:
Operation management is NHS is highly organized and the same is reflected in its work process.
The responsibility of operation management in work process can be discussed under the
following heads:
Handling patient flow- Apart from availability of beds in NHS there are other factors too that
effects the flow of patients. Often it has seen that due to lack of coordination patients are
dissatisfied about the service. In order to keep the satisfaction level of the patients intact, the

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operation management tries to make the process of enquiry handling as simple as possible.
Complexity of admission process often irritates patients (Anon, 2018).
Drug supply: Operation management at NHS tactfully coordinates with the supply management
team to keep a check about the medicines, inventories and other service products like medical
machines, oxygen cylinders etc. Thus, the operations monitors the availability of drugs and
medicines so that the patients can be kept contended (Dobrzykowski & Tarafdar 2015, pp.201-
214).
Medical documentation: The operations ensures that the all the medical documents of all the
patients admitted and diagnosed at NHS have a proper medical record that can be produced by
the hospital at times of need. That is, apart from the hard copies that is provided by the hospital
to the patients, separate soft copies are also maintained by the hospitals and are monitored by the
operations.
Impact of operation management on information flow:
Operation management ensures that the flow of the information from hospital authorities to the
customers or patients, from patients to the doctors and from doctors to the patients is kept simple.
Patients always appreciate simple processes. At NHS, while booking the appointment the
receptionist enquires about the department that the patient wishes to visit. At the time of
appointment the receptionist crosschecks the patient’s data and the patient is directly forwarded
to the concerned department. There is no in between process. After a thorough checkup the
prescription is right away handed to the patients and if there is any need of diagnosis, the
patient’s consent is taken. Patients are free to get the diagnosis done either at NHS or at any
other place.

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Supply chain and inventory management concepts to improve operation
Supply chain in the context of healthcare sector mainly coordinates with three basic
features. The producers, the purchasers and the providers in an healthcare organization. Supply
chain in an organization generally means the entire process that deals with the production of
medicines, vacancy created in the inventory, the logistic etc. All these departments together
incorporates supply management in healthcare centers. Though, it has been observed that the
operations at NHS does the utmost in the context of supply chain. Yet there are a few grounds
that if looked after, the healthcare center can perform better.
Operations team at NHS can incorporate demand driven models of business that would
help the organization to analyze the medicines and the other inventories that are most demanded
by the public (Bahmani-Firouzi &Azizipanah-Abarghooee 2014, pp.42-54). That is, by
evaluating the diseased and its corresponding medicines according to the age group of the
patients, the operation management would be able to chalk out charts about the medicines that
are in demand all over the year, medicines that have a seasonal demand like pneumonia, other
medicines that are demanded all round the year but not in surplus. By adopting this strategy, the
operations at NHS would not only save much amount of hospital capital but at the same time
would also save the medicines and other inventories from being expired and wasted.
Once the operation management are able to figure out the demand of medicines and
inventories, it becomes easier for the department to place orders. That is, the operations
department after analyzing the trend of medicines needed in specific times, can place the order
just with letting know the concerned authorities in the hospital. The operation would not need to
wait for a long time in order to get informed by the sources about the need of certain medicines

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and quantity and thereby placing orders. Thus, the operations at NHS can place the order
beforehand which further benefits the organization with timely receiving of the orders.
Flow chart of areas that demand improvement
Issues experienced and resolution
Operations management at NHS are faced with a number of issues in everyday business.
Listed below are a few issues faced by the operation management and the possible solutions to
the issues.
Hospital productivity and corresponding monetary challenges:
Maintenance of quality is a segment that is invested upon in huge amount by NHS in
order to remain competitive. Also at the same time, patient flow is not good at all the time of the
year (Shirley, 2016). The hospital capitals that are invested upon for the maintenance of quality
like buying the best inventories like medicines, Ordering the latest technological machines, using

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disinfectants in generous amount etc in the context of internal department. NHS also spends a
major part of its capital in hiring the best doctors, trained nurses and experienced hospital and
administrative staffs that would help to benefit the health care organization with best treatment.
Therefore, it is needless to assert that the investments made by the healthcare organization are
huge (Ginter, 2018). The revenue is generated through the patients. Lack of patient flow harms
the inflow of cash in the organization.
In order to overcome the situation, the operation management can announce attractive
offers on lean season (Monczka et al., 2018). For example, the management can announce an
offer of full check up in half of the price. Resultantly, a number of patients would come to the
hospital and the management would be getting an opportunity to showcase the skills and talent.
Apart from that, the cordial hospitality at the same time would also help the hospital to fetch in
new patients.
Providing the best customer care:
It has been noticed that due to excessive work pressure or due to negligence at times the
customers or the patients are not given prime importance. To meet the rush of the patients, many
a time it happen that the patient’s requirements are skipped. Quite obviously, it makes a negative
impression on the service that is provided by NHS healthcare and this at the same time also
results in the degradation of the customer base of NHS (Dobrzykowski et al., 2014, pp.514-530).
In order to mitigate the issue, operations department can recruit more staffs on contract
basis. Operations must recruit staffs on contract basis to meet the rush of patients during
epidemic or diseases based on season, like sunstroke during summers. Contract basis
administrative staffs would ensure that the capital of the organization is not wasted in lean

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season when the healthcare centers receive comparatively less rush of patients. Thus, the capital
would also be saved. Apart from that, it is also imperative that the customer service section of
NHS takes feedback from the patients in detail. The factors like if the if the patient is willing to
recommend the health care center and the staff to other friends or relatives also matters a lot to
NHS. Customer’s positive review and recommendation are the priorities that must be endured by
the healthcare centre staffs and management (Mohammadi, Soleymani & Mozafari, 2014,
pp.525-535).
The operations team at NHS must also ensure that concerned departments must take
feedbacks over phone and over online portal. Operations at NHS endures he negative feedback,
that is the grudges and complaints of the customers as well. The operation managers take the
negative comments in an optimistic manner. NHS operation management team feels that
complaints are the only way to understand and find out the loopholes present within the
organization. Taking immediate action over the complaints by the patients not only satisfies the
patients and makes a string and loyal customer base, but also at the same time, it ensures that the
healthcare centre is marching forward towards perfection.
Hospital security and Safety maintenance:
In this era crime knows no bound. The operation management team at NHS in order to
combat with crime like infant abduction, theft, misusing drugs, overdoes of drugs, theft of drugs
and patient wanderings need to make sure that all the healthcare branches of NHS have a proper
security system. With the benefit of globalization, some bane has also crept in. Perhaps safety
and security in health care centers are one of the deadliest banes of globalization. With the
advent of better communication system while on one hand it has enabled patients from different

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parts of the world to avail the best treatment and best care, on the other hand, people misuse the
same (Christopher, 2016 ).
Safety maintenance of patients is very closely related with the hospital security. The
better is the security system of an organization, the more secured are the patients in the
healthcare center (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus, 2014).
Operation management at NHS must make the utmost use of technology to combat these
deadly crimes. NHS can make the use of high intensity security cameras, alarms that are
centrally aligned and can scan all the visitors including patients while entering healthcare center
premises. It must be ensured by operation management that once the fame and integrity of NHS
is harmed, it would take a long time to build it up again. In order to stay in the safe zone, it
would be better to take prior measures regarding the safety of the organization as well as the
patients.
Conclusion
In the concluding portion, it can thus be asserted that operation management plays a
crucial part in all business sectors. In the context of the assignment, it can be said that operation
management is perhaps the pivot upon which the entire organization revolves around. The most
important functions of the operation department at NHS are discussed. Apart from that, the
assignment also sheds light upon the importance of operation management in the context of work
process and information flow. A reading of the work would help the reader to understand how
operations deal with supply chain and inventory in NHS.

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Reference List
Anon (2018) NHS continuing healthcare - NHS.UK. [Online] Available at:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support/nhs-continuing-care/ (accessed 12/ 04/
18).
Bahmani-Firouzi, B. & Azizipanah-Abarghooee, R., 2014. Optimal sizing of battery energy
storage for micro-grid operation management using a new improved bat algorithm. International
Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, 56, pp.42-54.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Dobrzykowski, D., Deilami, V.S., Hong, P. & Kim, S.C., 2014. A structured analysis of
operations and supply chain management research in healthcare (1982–2011). International
Journal of Production Economics, 147, pp.514-530.
Dobrzykowski, D.D. & Tarafdar, M., 2015. Understanding information exchange in healthcare
operations: Evidence from hospitals and patients. Journal of Operations Management, 36,
pp.201-214.
Ginter, P.M., 2018. The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Gopee, N. &Galloway, J., 2017. Leadership and management in healthcare. Sage.
Jacobs, F.R., Chase, R.B. & Lummus, R.R., 2014. Operations and supply chain
management (pp. 533-535). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

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Mohammadi, S., Soleymani, S. & Mozafari, B., 2014. Scenario-based stochastic operation
management of microgrid including wind, photovoltaic, micro-turbine, fuel cell and energy
storage devices. International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, 54, pp.525-535.
Monczka, R.M., Handfield, R.B., Giunipero, L.C. &Patterson, J.L., 2015. Purchasing and supply
chain management. Cengage Learning.
Parisio, A., Rikos, E. & Glielmo, L., 2016. Stochastic model predictive control for
economic/environmental operation management of microgrids: An experimental case
study. Journal of Process Control, 43, pp.24-37.
Shirley, D., 2016. Project management for healthcare. CRC Press.