Hospital Care

Critical Care Hospital - Case Study _

Incident for Discussion: Critical Care Hospital Critical Care Hospital has

planned to purchase a CATSCAN within the next six months. Though not mentioned

in the text, the cost of the equipment will be at least several hundred

thousand dollars, and could even exceed one million dollars. Additionally,

major renovations are required to the radiology department where the equipment

will be housed. Unfortunately, the construction project cannot be started

until the machine is in place, which will be five months from now. The Project

Manager ("PM") feels that she may be able to expedite the construction

schedule by utilizing a resource allocation version of the Critical Path

Method ("CPM"). Getting the machine up and running is of great interest to the

hospital, as revenues generated by the CATSCAN are projected to be in the

range of $25,000 per monthAccording to the text, the project is slated to

have a duration of twelve months. The waiting time for the CATSCAN is five

months. This leaves the PM eight months to accomplish her goal. Given that the

equipment is arriving simultaneously with the onset of the construction

project, I would suggest a combination of a heuristic approach using an "As

Late As Possible" ("ALAP") prioritization with a fast-track approach to the

actual constructionThe reason for the ALAP approach is the five-month delay

prior to the equipment being delivered. Holding off on allocating resources

during this slow period should, in theory, allow the PM to reserve monetary

resources for the Crash period. I would imagine that part-time allocation of

administrative support, to solicit construction bids, generate reports and

management approval requests along with full-time PM participation would be

sufficient. The PM during this time will be working with hospital management

to generate a detailed project plan and Scope of Work. Several critical

elements come into play in this situation. For example, two relocations of the

existing radiology department, or at least the area that will house the

CATSCAN will be required during the construction period. The first will be for

the purpose of clearing the required space for the new CATSCAN area, including

construction corridors, to a temporary location. Then, after the equipment is

installed and renovations complete on this area, the rest of the department

will need to be renovated as well. This aspect of the project will require

extensive coordination with other departments within the hospital. This

includes administrative staff, medical personnel, suppliers (pick-ups and

deliveries), janitorial staff, and primarily the radiology staff itself.

During the first five months of the project I would suspect that this

coordination and planning alone would consume 50% of the PM's time.