Capacity Management in a Hospital

Capacity management

Capacity is the maximum possible output in a given time. In a hospital the maximum output are the hospital beds available in a given time.
This is of course difficult at times because the hospital faces many challenges like the complex environment, uncertainty in length of stay and the variability. (R. Alvarez, 2012)

To manage the capacity in hospitals, two strategies have to be used.

Due to the fact that there are two different types of hospital visitors.

The first type are the people who come in with an emergency that have to be handled immediately. Like a broken leg, heart attack or failing organs.

The other type are the planned surgeries or visits like: an MRI or to check if the patient is still healthy after the surgery.

For the emergency visits the hospital can use the chase demand strategy. In this strategy the operators, in this context the hospital, seek to match supply (hospital beds) as closely to demand (patients). This strategy is illustrated in figure 7.3 (P. Jones, 2012)

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Using the chase demand strategy, the equipment and the workface can be made flexible.

To use this model, internal numerical flexibility is necessary. It is achieved by adjusting full-time employees’ hours or schedules. This includes:

1. Full-time staff to work ‘flexitime’ or flexible working hours and shifts.
2. Employing workers on annualized hours, the employees are guaranteed an average number of hours per week, but during the off time they may work fewer than this and during the high time work more.
3. Part-time employees. The advantage of this is there is a core of full-time employees and when there is more demand the part-time are able to help out.
4. Arranging holiday and leave entitlements.
5. Paying overtime.

Multiskilling is also very helpful when using the chase demand strategy. It is training employees to do a variety of tasks. There are a lot of benefits when you multiskilling is applied.

1. Jobs satisfaction will increase, as multiskilled workers have more interesting work, greater confidence, and are encouraged to learn and develop.
2. Increase staff retention, especially amongst part-time employees
3. Improve team working, as workers begin to appreciate to work their colleagues do in other parts of the organization.
4. Improve work processes, as multiskilled employees approach their second role with experience of the organization but objective insight towards their new department.
5. Lowers induction training costs, as multiskilled staff need only be inducted in the organization once.  
6. Better coordination and collaboration between heads of departments because they have to jointly schedule multiskilled staff.

For the other type of people that come in the hospital are the planned surgeries or visits like: an MRI or to check if the patient is still healthy after the surgery.

The demand management strategy is there to adjust the inputs and influence the demand so that inputs and outputs are closely matched. In the context of a hospital this means that the input (patients) are planned and scheduled so that everybody is handled. This means in most cases, shifting demand from peak periods to off-peak periods.
This strategy is illustrated in figure 7.4. (P. Jones, 2012)