Applied Problem-Solving in Healthcare Management is a practical textbook devoted to developing and strengthening problem-solving and decision-making leadership competencies of healthcare administration students and healthcare management professionals. Built upon the University of Minnesota Master of Healthcare Administration Program's Problem-Solving Method, the text describes the "never assume" mindset and the structured method that drive evidence-based, action-oriented problem-solving. The "never assume" mindset requires healthcare leaders to understand themselves and their stakeholders, and to engage in waves of divergent and convergent thinking. This structured method guides the problem solver through the phases of defining, studying, and acting on complex interrelated organizational problems that involve multiple root causes. The book also describes how the Problem-Solving Method is complementary to quality improvement methods and can be used in healthcare organizations along with Lean, Design Thinking, and Human Centered Design. Providing step-by-step instruction including useful tips, tools, activities, and case studies, this effective resource demonstrates the utility of the method for all types of health organization settings including health systems, hospitals, clinics, population health, and long-term care. For students taking health management, capstone, and experiential learning courses, including internship and residency projects, this book allows them to test and apply their problem-solving and decision-making skills to real-world situations. Beyond the classroom, it is an indispensable resource for organizations seeking to enhance the problem-solving skills of their workforce. The authors of the text have nearly 75 years of combined experience in healthcare management, leadership, and professional consulting, and teaching and advising healthcare administration students in classrooms, on student capstone, internship and residency projects, and case competitions. Synthesizing their expertise, this text serves as a guide for those who wish to strengthen their problem-solving abilities to systematically identify, analyze, study, and solve pressing organizational challenges in healthcare settings. Key Features: Describes a mindset and a structured problem-solving method that builds leadership competencies Encourages a step-by-step problem-solving approach to define, study, and act on problems to drive action-oriented solutions Supports experiential learning and coaching for students and professionals early in their careers, applicable especially to healthcare management, capstone, and student consulting courses, internship and residency projects, case competitions, and professional development in organizations Compares the Problem-Solving Method to other complementary methods used in many healthcare organizations, including Lean, Design Thinking, and Human Centered Design Includes access to the fully downloadable eBook as well as ancillary materials such as Instructor's Manual and Sample Syllabi

What challenges do hospital managers face in matching supply and demand for hospital services while maintaining service quality and keeping costs low? What are emerging trends in practice? To what extent and how has the Operations Management (OM) literature contributed to addressing these challenges? What opportunities and additional challenges do they pose for the OM researchers? Matching Supply and Demand for Hospital Services address these questions. The monograph focuses on the three main types of services that hospitals provide: surgical services, emergency services, and inpatient services. In doing so, the authors expose the interconnectedness of these services and the challenges that arise due to the cascading effects of mismatches in any one area on all other hospital operations. The goal is to expose key issues from practitioner perspectives, use representative data to highlight problems that are amenable to modeling using operations management tools, summarize state of the art in modeling such problems, and identify opportunities for future research. This book underscores several important observations. First, hospital administrators need to consider forces affecting demand and supply for services both inside and outside the hospital walls. Second, hospitals need both careful advance planning, based on patterns observed in historical data, as well as dynamic response strategies to unfolding reality that forces inevitable deviations from plans. Third, the role of hospitals is changing. Innovations in payment mechanisms that bundle payment to hospitals and doctors, and offer incentives for lowering costs, are creating the need to design and implement effective gainsharing plans. These same forces have also increased the importance for hospital administrators of choosing the right number and specialization of salaried physicians, and building alliances with both upstream (such as primary care clinics) and downstream (such as skilled nursing facilities) service providers. OM researchers have addressed some of these topics but significant new opportunities abound.