Posted: May 1st, 2025

Health & Medical Question

You don’t need to review the guidelines and examples but I will include it. Please view this document before posting: Discussion Board Guidelines and Examples Download Discussion Board Guidelines and Examples
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Please complete the following steps for your discussion post and response.

Consider the following scenario as the basis for this discussion. You must respond to your classmates using the peer response directions provided below, as this requires you to assume an opposing viewpoint.

• Herzing Hospital recently launched a block scheduling system for all of their operating rooms (ORs), which replaced open scheduling. While the change is accepted by most, several surgeons and OR staff are unhappy with the new format.
• Provide a brief summary of why block scheduling is superior to open scheduling. Conduct research and incorporate the principles of evidence-based practice into your post. Reflect on the types of questions or challenges to your position you would receive from OR teams and demonstrate that reflection in your post.

Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references in APA format.

Please review post and response expectations. Please review the rubric to ensure that your response meets criteria.

Your initial discussion response should address the question posed, with outside sources to support your opinions. It should be around 100 words or so to accurately illustrate your example and posted by end of the day on Wednesday of the week. Remember to use in-text citations and APA references when posting. Responses to classmates need to address what they posted, and then elaborate on their information. You can use in-text citations to support your response to the classmate posting, and your response should be around 50 words minimum. Responses to classmates should be posted by Sunday.

Discussion Question Example:

Explain why interpersonal skills are important in health care management.

According to Buchbinder and Shanks (2017), interpersonal skills are those skills that help managers communicate effectively with others, regardless of the position. Especially in health care, these skills are really important to ensure that communication is clear, concise and reduces the chance for errors. Employees who have worked to create strong interpersonal skills tend to be more successful in the professional aspect of their lives, as well as the home aspect (Skills You Need, n.d.). When it comes to management in healthcare, one has to focus on quality patient care and support services that will contribute to that quality focus. Being able to effectively communicate with all areas of the organization will increase that ability.

References

Buchbinder, S. & Shanks, N. (2017). Introduction to health care management (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA:Jones & Bartlett Learning.

What are interpersonal skills?. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.skillsyouneed.com/interpersonal-skills….

You provided us with a well-balanced view of the pros and cons of block- versus open-scheduling. With all its pluses, the downside to block scheduling can’t be swept under the rug, particularly in the area of resource utilization. Unused time slots could provide “ammunition” to opponents who point to issues of flexibility and fairness. As informed HCAs, we can help ORs implement block — or blended — scheduling systems that are satisfactory to most users (but we must acknowledge that we may have some users who can never be fully accommodated).

One key aspect of any transition — such as from one scheduling system to another, whether in the OR or elsewhere in the organization — is monitoring and reevaluating the results. Tools such as PDCA and lean six sigma come to mind. Two useful tools I added to my toolkit from my Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification course are the Process Walk and the Process Map. Each can be viewed below. Note that the Process Map is populated with information from goleansixsigma.com’s fictional Kona Kafé to illustrate the use of the map (linear processing versus decision-based processing), but can easily be adapted to healthcare processes, such as OR scheduling.