MIMS 5112 Decision Support

MIMS 5112 Decision Support
Please complete the questions below without consulting your peers (i.e. this is an individual assignment, not a group one). There are a total 100 points.
A. Project management:
1. (5 points) Describe the triple constraint and why it is important in project management
a. The triple constraint include time, scope and cost. All projects are carried out under constraints primarily cost, scope, and time. They are often represented as a triangle. Projects must be delivered within a certain time, at certain cost, and must meet an agreed scope. This maintains the quality of the project.
i. Cost- all projects need a budget
ii. Time – all projects need deadlines
iii. Scope- need to be defined and understood
2. (5 points) What does ‘go to the Gemba’ mean? Why is it important?
a. Go to the Gemba means to go to the location the work is actually taking place. There during the root cause analyses you can observe the area and identify most likely causes.
3. (25 points) BigU hospital is planning a rollout of a new clinical information system. They have one year to roll it out, starting in January. There are five phases, each of which can take no longer than two months, but they may overlap or be separated. These include: a) needs assessment b) planning c) equipment purchase d) installation and testing e) training f) go-live g) post-go-live assessment and planning. For contractual reasons, the training and go-live must be continuous with each other, and needs assessment and planning overlap by one month. However planning must be completed before equipment purchase. At the last minute, the university administration insists on a contract vetting process taking one month, before equipment can be purchased.
Create a simple Gantt chart showing a possible timeline for the phases of this project and give a brief rationale for the choices you made.

B. Medical Vocabulary
4. (Please give the meaning of the following words, and break up the word into the parts (stem, endings etc.) and give the meaning of the parts. You may consult online resources
(2 points each):
• Episiotomy – a surgical incision made in the area between the vagina and anus (perineum)
• Thoracotomy– surgical Incision into the chest wall
• Gastric- pertaining to the stomach
• Gastritis – infection of the stomach
• Splenectomy–surgical removal of the spleen
• Osteomyelitis – infection of the bone
• Phlebotomy – incision into the circulatory system for withdrawal of blood
• Phlebitis – infection of the veins
• Oncology – the study of cancer
• Bradycardia – slow heart rate or beat
• Hyperextension – over extension
• Macrocytopenia – large cell
• Galactorrhea – secretion of breast milk
• Hepatomegaly – enlarged liver
• Dermatomyositis – inflammatory muscle disease that leads to destruction of muscle tissue

5. (4 points) Why would a person take a bone density test?
a. is used to assess the strength of the bones and the probability of fracture in persons at risk for osteoporosis.

6. (2 points) “The wound was located on the dorsal surface of the arm, distal to the elbow”. Where is the wound?
a) Upper arm just below the shoulder
b) Lower arm below the elbow and above the wrist
c) In the hand
d) On the back, at the level of the elbow
e) In the bend of the elbow

7. Workflow analysis:(30 points)

BigU must now connect its new system to the public health system, in order to do public health measures reporting. There are several steps that must be completed:
a) There must be discussions with the public health department, likely to take a month
b) The BigU must either use internal programmers or contract out the programming
c) In order to know what must be programmed and any standards, they must have the programming team talk to the public health department, which will take 3 weeks.
d) If the programmers are in-house, they must get permission from the programmer team head, and allocate time (2 months)
e) If the programmers are external, they must have an office located in the BigU hospital, which takes two weeks to assign, and then takes 2 months for programming.
f) If the public health department agrees to vet the code for the interface, they will donate one of their programmers to do this, taking 1 month. If not, the BigU must hire a consultant which will take six weeks.
g) A test connection and testing plan must be set up, taking 1 week
h) Testing must be done by the programmer team, taking 2 weeks, or 3 weeks if done by the public health department
i) If testing fails, another two weeks of programming will be required to fix things
j) If testing succeeds, go-live will take another two weeks.

a) Draw a workflow diagram for the planning, and b) calculate the critical path. Are there any measures that could be taken to speed up the process?