mgt305a4.1

Note: The following problem is fictitious but employs names of, and news from, real organizations. The idea is to increase the reality of the situation, and to improve your awareness of various industries and organizations.

You are a project manager for TriHealth. One of your company’s hospitals, Good Samaritan, is undergoing an expansion. Three alternative layouts are being considered:

Alternative 1

Emergency Room	Radiology	Cardiology
Operating Room	Recovery	Reception

Alternative 2

Emergency Room	Operating Room	Reception
Radiology	Recovery	Cardiology

Alternative 3

Operating Room	Recovery	Cardiology
Emergency Room	Reception	Radiology

All rooms share a common hallway situated in the center of the wing. Movement to adjacent rooms or to a room directly across the hall is 30 feet. Moving diagonally across the hall (e.g., Operating Room to Radiology in Alternative 1) is 40 feet. Moving 'double diagonally across the hall (e.g., Operating Room to Cardiology in Alternative 1) is 75 feet.

You’ve been asked to recommend an alternative.

Before commencing your analysis, you track movement between departments in the existing hospital space. Here are the results of a week's worth of tracking (expressed as a daily average rounded to the nearest trip):

# Trips	To
From	Cardiology	Emergency Room	Operating Room	Radiology	Reception	Recovery
Cardiology	-	15	30	2	1	4
Emergency Room	7	-	26	10	4	30
Operating Room	4	7	-	17	0	35
Radiology	3	22	23	-	0	14
Reception	10	18	5	21	-	9
Recovery	16	8	5	9	1	-

Direct your write up to your boss, Director of Hospital Operations. In your report, be sure to explain your analytical approach (i.e., what data are you using, how did you get it, and what are you doing with it here?)—including sample calculations.

If you think there is an even better alternative than the three under consideration, feel free to inject it into your analysis.

Be sure to note your assumptions and limitations.

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