Assignment 1

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CAPACITY PLANNING

The Arnold Palmer Hospital is facing challenges in dealing with capacity management of the hospital. The administration of the hospital uses two approaches to address the situation. The first approach focuses on the short-term plans and the second approach deals with the long-term plans. In the short-range plan, the hospital creatively allocated spaces or turned beds around faster to maximize the number of deliveries. The hospital uses limited spaces that are available in other rooms to admit more patients to the facility. Additionally, the hospital decompresses some of the services to the sister hospital. As such, subcontracting becomes imperative for the hospital to balance the capacity and demand. An increase in the demand for the services is anticipated in the hospital. Such necessitate formulation of long-term plans. The hospital utilizes the approach by expanding the facility. The management builds an eleven-floor building in two phases. The first phase is the construction of nine –floors and the second phase is the construction of additional two floors. The first phase is based on the lead demand by incremental expansion. The second phase depends on the rate of increase, which applies the principle of capacity lag demand.

Planning is imperative in the effective utilization of the facilities and resources owned by the hospital. The hospital should train the staffs on the significance of using the resources sustainably. The training will impart knowledge to the employees on various ways of managing the resources and facilities. The hospital can create a task force that deals with management of the resources and facilities. The functions of the task force should include conducting research and writing reports and recommendations to the hospital management on the state of the facilities on a regular basis. The findings of the task force will be instrumental in making decisions and formulating policies that will enhance capacity development and growth of the hospital.