From Knowledge to Decision - A Case Study of Sales and Operations Planning in Health Care
Journal article, 2016

One of the most important challenges in health care management is balancing resources with fluctuating and uncertain demand. This study examines whether introducing a standardised process for Sales and Operations planning at a large university hospital improved specialty department managers’ knowledge of planning conditions and if so, whether decisions were made based on this knowledge. Using responses from a survey of 30 specialty department managers at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden, the analyses indicate that operational knowledge strengthens insights about the needs for strategic decisions, and vice versa. Moreover, knowledge is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for making decisions at the department level. An overall planning and decision structure is required and should be implemented first at the hospital level to effectively allocate resources.

Case study

Decision making

Sales and Operations planning

Health care management

Capacity management

Author

Anna-Lena Alvekrans

Björn Lantz

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Innovation and R&D Management

Peter Rosén

University of Gothenburg

Levi Siljemyr

Johan Snygg

University of Gothenburg

Production Planning and Control

0953-7287 (ISSN) 1366-5871 (eISSN)

Vol. 27 12 1019-1026

Subject Categories

Other Mechanical Engineering

Business Administration

Areas of Advance

Production

DOI

10.1080/09537287.2016.1174892

More information

Created

10/7/2017