Hc 575

The supply chain is a crucial component of health care operations.   Nearly all hospital departments rely on supplies; therefore, materials management is monitored closely.   Patients also need supplies during their stay or during out-patient procedures.   Quality care is virtually impossible if supplies are not readily available in adequate amounts.   Keen management of supplies and materials is necessary to achieve the highest quality of care goal.   This can only be achieved through mastering operations management skills.
Operations management is the organizing and controlling the fundamental business activity of providing goods and services to customers.   Operations managers working in hospitals are the center of supply delivery management.   Operations managers have the heavy burden of knowing that any delay in supply can result in the death of a patient.   One major constraint that hospitals face is having enough supplies on hand.   It is difficult to have large amounts of certain drugs, equipment, emergency supplies, etc. when everything is extremely expensive or over-priced.   Thus, cost is another potential constraint.
Sharing some of the burden of costs and demand across hospital units is a great way to share the responsibility of ensuring that the hospital has the supplies that it needs.   Collaborative planning is an approach to practical planning that brings team members together around the visible business milestones that are important to the success of each and every group that is a part of the bigger team (Watson, 2009). This method is useful in aligning team members to the organizational vision when creating project plans.   It is especially valuable when a team is composed of various independent groups, possibly with different ideas of how a planning process should work.   Collaborative planning also allows information sharing of best business practices or best of kinds to be utilized among the entire facility.   If something is working well in one...