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Shouldice Hospital Limited Essays

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Shouldice Hospital Limited
1. How well is the hospital currently utilizing its beds?

Shouldice Hospital is currently utilizing its beds quite well. Under the Shouldice method, they are operating with 90 beds, admitting 30 patients per day, and not accepting any new patients on Saturdays. Each patient admitted generally stays in the hospital for 3 days and is discharged on the fourth morning. By examining Exhibit 4.7, it is apparent that the hospital’s capacity utilization is roughly 71.43%. On Mondays and Fridays, 60 of the 90 beds are utilized (66%). Tuesdays through Thursdays, all 90 beds are being used (100%), while 30 of the beds are being used on Saturdays and Sundays (33%). If they were using all 90 beds, 7 days a week, …show more content…

Without expanding the facilities and increasing the number of employees, this higher capacity is likely to be insufficient for additional patients.

3. How many operations could the hospital perform per day before running out of bed capacity? How well would the new resources be utilized relative to the current operations? Why?

By increasing the number of beds by 50%, the total number of beds available would become 135 (90 x 1.5 = 135 beds). As a result, Shouldice Hospital could perform a maximum of 45 operations per day before running out of bed capacity. With operations still being performed 5 days per week, the total bed capacity would become 675 beds (135 beds x 5 days a week = 675 beds). In relation to the current operation of 30 patients per day, the utilization rate for bed capacity would now be 66.67% (450 / 675 = 66.67%).

After analyzing this information and reading through the case thoroughly, it would be quite difficult for Shouldice to perform 45 operations a day. They have limitations due to their operating rooms and the number of surgeons at their facility. According to the case, they have 12 full-time surgeons and only 5 operating rooms. Each surgeon operates on 4 patients per day so at most, the 12 surgeons can perform 48 total operations on a daily basis. Additionally, each operation takes 1 hour and since they only have 5 operating rooms, the maximum number of operations they can perform is 5 operations per hour. Operation time

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