Unit II Case Study

The case study for Unit II is “Shouldice Hospital – A Cut
Above.†The case is presented on pages 87 and 88 of the textbook. Respond to the questions at the end of the case on
page 88. Your responses should be complete but succinct.
Shouldice Hospital – A Cut Above
1.
How well is the hospital currently utilizing its beds?1.
Develop a similar table to show the effects of adding operations on
Saturday. (Assume that 30 operations would still be performed each day.) How
would this affect the utilization of the bed capacity? Is this capacity sufficient
for the additional patients?1.
Now look at the effect of increasing the number of beds by 50%. How
many operations could the hospital perform per day before running out of bed
capacity? (Assume operations are performed five days per week, with the same
number performed on each day.) How well would the new resources be utilized
relative to the current operation? Could the hospital really perform this many
operations? Why? (Hint: Look at the capacity of the 12 surgeons and the five
operating rooms.)1.
Although financial data are sketchy, an estimate from a construction
company indicates that adding bed capacity would cost about $100,000 per bed.
In addition, the rate charged for the hernia surgery varies between about $900
and $2000 (U.S. dollars), with an average rate of $1,300per operation. The
surgeons are paid a flat $600 per operation. Due to all the uncertainties in
government health care legislation, Shouldice would like to justify any
expansion within a five-year time period.