Deck 11: Operational Metrics in Health Care Organizations

Question 1

Operations management seeks to minimize the volume of inputs for a given level of outputs.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Labor inputs are of little consequence in operations management since they account for a small proportion of operating expenses in a hospital.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Financial statements can be a useful source of data for operational assessment.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Since hospitals are moving to a larger proportion of outpatient services, the inpatient day is no longer used as a measure of hospital output.

Question 5

Considering the multiple types of output produced in a hospital organization, aggregate measures of output such as the adjusted patient day or adjusted discharge are the most common for assessment of hospital operations.

Question 6

Selection of operational metrics should be based on industry norms and not consider strategic objectives in order to maximize benchmarking.

Question 7

Organizations should maximize the number of metrics it tracks in order to optimize control over operational performance, since "things measured are things managed".

Question 8

Advantages of using units of input for evaluating operational performance (rather than costs of inputs) are:

A) Units of input are easy to measure using income statement expense data
B) The mix or quality of inputs can be accounted for
C) Inflation of units allows measurements to be up to date
D) All of the above are advantages

Question 9

Common sources of operational data in hospitals include:

A) Income statements
B) Internal statistical reports
C) Payroll journals
D) All of the above are sources of operational data

Question 10

Which of the following is not a common measure of hospital output?

A) Patient day
B) Patient discharge
C) Adjusted patient roster
D) Average daily census

Question 11

The adjusted occupied bed metric is calculated as:

A) Inpatient days / inpatient discharges
B) Outpatient days / available beds
C) (Outpatient visits + inpatient days) / days in the period
D) Adjusted patient days / days in the period

Question 12

Occupancy percentage is calculated as:

A) (Inpatient days / total patient days) x 100
B) (Adjusted patient days / adjusted discharges) x 100
C) (Average daily census / beds in operation) x 100
D) (Average daily census / discharges in the period) x 100

Question 13

Developing a baseline level of performance for an operational metric includes all but which of the following?

A) Defining the measurement and data elements of the metric
B) Including all data points available, excluding none
C) Defining the data gathering methodology
D) Establish a desired outcome to be measured

Question 14

Which of the following should be considered in the adoption of operational metrics in a hospital?

A) The number of metrics should be maximized
B) Reporting frequency should be as is convenient by analysts
C) Resources used to compile data for reporting on metrics should be maximized
D) Operational metrics should be aligned with strategic objectives

Question 15

Describe why units of input may be more objective in evaluating operational performance.

Question 16

Describe some sources of data usable for operational metrics.

Question 17

Differentiate between a patient day and a patient discharge.

Question 18

Differentiate between a patient day and an adjusted patient day.