Week 8: Data Driven Decision Making for Health Care Administration
Optimization 2
As you examined last week, optimization is a valuable tool that healthcare administration leaders may use to help enhance healthcare delivery. Executing effective healthcare administration practice is challenged by myriad factors that may not necessarily be solved or addressed with one analytic technique alone. Therefore, as a current or future healthcare administration leader, enhancing your understanding and application of analytic techniques will be useful for addressing those problems you may encounter in your health services organization.
- This week, you extend your examination of optimization techniques and continue exploring the strengths and weaknesses in optimization findings. You also continue to apply optimization techniques to address healthcare administration problems.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Evaluate optimization problems
- Analyze strengths and weaknesses in optimization findings
- Apply optimization techniques for healthcare administration practice.
Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
Required Readings
Albright, S. C., & Winston, W. L. (2017). Business analytics: Data analysis and decision making (6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Chapter 14, “Optimization Models”
Bastian, N. D., McMurry, P., Fulton, L. V., Griffin, P. M., Cui, S., Hanson, T., & Srinivas, S. (2015). The AMEDD uses goal programming to optimize manpower planning decisions. Interfaces, 45(4), 305–324.
Discussion (2 pages)
Optimization in Staffing
Oscar is a healthcare administration leader who oversees the management of an ambulatory care clinic. Over the past 2 months, patient inflows have dramatically increased due to a recent shutdown of a neighboring care clinic. The patient inflows require that 90% of all nursing staff work overtime to ensure effective healthcare delivery. However, having 90% of the nursing workforce work overtime could be problematic in terms of patient quality and safety. Oscar would like to determine how he can best optimize his current staff holdings to ensure a balance between quality patient care and safety.
- For this Discussion, review the resources for this week, and be sure to focus on the Bastian et al. (2015) article. Reflect on the optimization problem mentioned in the article.
By Day 3
- Post a brief summary of the optimization problem presented in the Bastian et al. (2015) article in the resources for this week. Be sure to include an explanation of the objective function, as well as what the constraints actually mean. Then, explain what was done well in the article, and identify where you found shortcomings in the article. Be specific, and provide examples.
By Day 5
Continue the Discussion and respond to your colleagues in one or more of the following ways:
- Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research.
- Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
- Offer and support an alternative perspective, using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
- Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
- Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
- Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Submission and Grading Information
Grading Criteria
To access your rubric:
Week 8 Discussion Rubric
Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 5
To participate in this Discussion: Week 8 Discussion
Assignment Part (3 pages)
More Advanced Optimization
Advanced optimization techniques are often necessary to solve real problems in health care. Techniques like goal programming and data envelopment analysis are often used to solve multiple objective problems, such as minimizing cost while maximizing access measures. Other advanced techniques are often required for problems that sometimes seem straightforward. Although you may not encounter the use of advanced optimization techniques on a day-to-day basis, understanding the methodology and application of these techniques is a valuable skill for the healthcare administration leader.
- For this Assignment, review the resources for this week. Reflect on, and consider, the advanced optimization techniques highlighted. Think about how you might apply these advanced optimization techniques to healthcare delivery challenges in a health services organization.
For Chapter 14, problems 80 and 90, you will need to download the files P14_80.xlsx and P14_90.xlsx from the textbook companion website http://www.cengage.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=9781305947542. Under “Book Resources”, click on “Student Downloads” to view the downloadable files. Click “Problem Files” and download the zipped file 1305947541_538885.zip. Open the zipped file, and select folder “Problem Files” and then select folder “Chapter 14” to access the files P14_80.xlsx and P14_90.xlsx.
The Assignment: (3pages)
Complete Problem 80 (pharmaceutical company) and Problem 90 (brain tumor) on pages 751 and 753 of your course texts.
Note: You will be using Excel and Solver for this Assignment.
The Problems
- A pharmaceutical company produces the drug NasaMist from four chemicals. Today, the company must produce 1000 pounds of the drug. The three active ingredients in NasaMist are A, B, and C. By weight, at least 8% of NasaMist must consist of A, at least 4% of B, and at least 2% of C. The cost per pound of each chemical and amount of each active ingredient in one pound of each chemical are given in the fileP14_80.xlsx. It is necessary that at least 100 pounds of chemical 2 and at least 450 pounds of chemical 3 be used.
- Determine the cheapest way of producing today’s batch of NasaMist.
- Use Solver Table to see how much the percentage of requirement of A is really costing the company. Let the percentage required vary from 6% to 12%.
Problem 90
Based on Sonderman and Abrahamson (1985). In treating a brain tumor with radiation, physicians want the maximum amount of radiation possible to bombard the tissue containing the tumors. The constraint is, however, that there is a maximum amount of radiation that normal tissue can handle without suffering tissue damage. Physicians must therefore decide how to aim the radiation so as to maximize the radiation that hits the tumor tissue subject to the constraint of not damaging the normal tissue. As a sample example of this situation, suppose there are six types of radiation beams (beams differ in where they are aimed and their intensity) that can be aimed at a tumor. The region containing the tumor has been divided into six regions: three regions contain tumors and three contain normal tissue. The amount of radiation delivered to each region by each type of beam is shown in the file (14_90.xlsx. If each region of normal tissue can handle at most 60 units of radiation, which beams should be used to maximize the total amount of radiation received by the tumors?
By Day 7
Submit your answers and embedded Excel analysis as a Microsoft Word management report.
Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:
Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK8Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
Click the Week 8 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
Click the Week 8 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK8Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.
Grading Criteria
To access your rubric:
Week 8 Assignment Rubric
Check Your Assignment Draft for Authenticity
To check your Assignment draft for authenticity:
Submit your Week 8 Assignment draft and review the originality report.
Submit Your Assignment by Day 7
To submit your Assignment: Week 8 Assignment
