Deck 8: Forecasting and Decision Tools

Question 1

Operations research is defined as "understanding the behavioral aspects of subjective decision making".

Answer 1

False
The discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions.

Question 2

One of the key areas where operations research methods can contribute to improving healthcare is in the modeling of patient volumes and flow through organizations and health systems.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

A bottleneck occurs when capacity exceeds demand and resources wait for work.

Answer 3

False
A bottleneck can occur at any point where capacity is insufficient to meet demand due to physical or logical constraints. A bottleneck can also be a person, a role, or any other barrier or obstacle to cooperation and work performance among departments

Question 4

Successful de-bottlenecking includes determination if the bottleneck is the result of an inability to handle demand at all times, or just at a specific point in time, as well as to discover if other barriers to throughput exist.

Question 5

Capacity refers to the amount of resources or assets that exist to serve the demand.

Question 6

There is no such thing as an optimal solution to eliminate wait times.

Question 7

Wait times generally do not influence bottlenecks in a healthcare process.

Question 8

Wait times in health care result in:

A) Opportunities for staff to rest and improve care
B) Decreased patient satisfaction
C) Quality checking prior transactions
D) Smoother staging of demand

Question 9

Key components of wait line simulations include all of the following except:

A) Arrival rate
B) Service rate
C) Scheduling blocks
D) Queue structure

Question 10

When wait times for patient registration exceed management expectations, which of the following can be used to improve performance?

A) Reduce the number of steps in the registration process
B) Increase the number of appointments available to maximize available demand
C) Decrease the number of employees working on that process to reduce overlap
D) All of the above can improve wait time performance

Question 11

Common problems with time and motion studies include:

A) Non-bias effects
B) Waiting line queue effect
C) Hawthorne effect
D) None of the above

Question 12

Typical tracking mechanisms include which of the following?

A) Stopwatches and clipboards
B) Video surveillance
C) Bar codes
D) Computer MAC addresses

Question 13

Which of the following are considered a benefit of RFID tracking?

A) Automated vital signs recording
B) Monitoring of inventories
C) Faster employee error-checking
D) Increased prices per unit sold

Question 14

Which of the following is a basic consideration of forecasting?

A) Forecasts at lower levels are more accurate
B) Once a forecast has been made, management has all it needs to plan for operations
C) Managerial estimates are the best source for demand forecasts
D) Downstream transactional data such as customer requisitions are the best source for projecting demand

Question 15

Differentiate between the two major types of forecasts.

Question 16

Describe a moving average forecast.

Question 17

Describe trend forecasting.