Operation Management Definition Paper

Operation Management Definition Paper

The purpose of this paper is to describe the importance of operations management to a health care organization. In addition, the author of this paper will provide a personal definition of what operations management means and why is important to a healthcare organization.

According to the Institute of Operations Management

The cost of providing fast, reliable health care is always an emotive issue, but it has been brought to the fore again via the Gershon report, which is challenging the established Health Care Supply Chain. As a precursor to more specific events that look at how operations management can help practitioners make best use of additional funding to improve patient care and enhance the working lives of Health Care Professionals. The essential healthcare management functions are organized into three major groups of activities governing, caring, and learning with a focus on reaching excellence in community healthcare. Within these activities, each system is described in terms of what it must do to make the whole system effective. Implementing and sustaining change is one of the most difficult tasks for any management -but change is a fact of life in any modern enterprise and, without the ability to manage change, no company can hope to survive it. Operations Managers addresses the practical issues that surround planning and implementing change, including motivating a business to change, engaging staff in the change process, determining performance measures and sustaining the benefits achieved in the initial change process.

According to Stevenson (2002),

operations management is the management of that part of an organization that is responsible for producing goods and/or services.

Operations management is that part of a business organization responsible for planning and coordinating the use of the organization's resources to convert inputs into outputs. The operations function is one of three primary functions of business organizations; the other two are marketing and finance. The operations function is present in both service-oriented and product-oriented organizations. Operations decisions involve design decisions and operating decisions. Design decisions relate to capacity planning, product design, process design, layout of facilities, and selecting locations for facilities. Operating decisions relate to quality assurance, scheduling, inventory management, and project management. (p. 26)

Henderson (1995) writes

Health care operations encompass the totality of those health care functions that allow those who practice health care delivery to do so. As the health care industry undergoes dramatic reform, so will the jobs of those who manage health care delivery systems.

Although health care operations managers play one of the most vital and substantial roles in the new delivery systems, the criteria for their success (or failure) are being defined now. Yet, the new and vital role of the operations manager has been stunted in its development, which is primarily because of old and outdated antipathy between hospital administration and physicians. The skills and characteristics of today's health care operations managers are defined.

Today, an effective operations manager must promote a physician-led organization, which implies physician involvement in all clinical arenas. However, physician-led means neither physician-controlled nor physician-dominated--led is the operative word. Operations managers deliver to physicians and all others who deliver care the tools necessary to deliver that care. Without those tools, very little health care can be delivered.

Effective operations managers have a "shared vision"(2) with the other members of the health care team, including physicians, payers, and providers. This shared vision may be developed through open, sincere