Management Exam

1. True or false: The systematic employment of the best available evidence to the evaluation of managerial strategies for improving performance should be an HCO strategic imperative.
   1. True
   2. False

 

2. The triple aim for the healthcare system includes improving the quality of care, improving the health of the population, and
3. increasing insurers’ support of policies
4. lowering costs of quality healthcare for individuals, families, and employers
5. increasing access to primary care providers
6. reducing excess waste in the healthcare system.
7. reducing overuse of high cost emergency care

 

 

3. True or false: According to the Knowledge Hierarchy concept, information is data that are organized or processed to have meaning, but may not always necessarily be useful.
   1. True
   2. False

 

4. By tying ____________________ to ____________________ and efficiency, Value Based Purchasing attempts to unify the patients’, providers’, administrators’, and payers’ perspectives.
5. expenses, patient experience
6. compensation, patient experience
7. expenses, efficiency
8. compensation, efficiency
9. expenses, compensation

 

5. Surveying or interviewing patients can be used to capture the
6. Voice of the Process
7. Voice of the Customer
8. Voice of Deployment
9. Voice of Quality
10. Voice of Care

 

6. Comparing your organization’s performance to the best’s in a particular industry is called
7. benchmarking
8. the House of Quality
9. the Voice of the Customer
10. the Voice of the Process
11. using Donabedian’s Triad

 

7. Donabedian established a framework for evaluating health service quality along the continuum of Structure, Process and Outcomes. Which of the following would not be a “Structure” type of quality indicator in Donabedian’s Triad?
8. Median time to transfer to another facility
9. Number of patient rooms
10. Number of physicians on staff
11. Number of computers owned by the facility
12. Number of nurses with CCRN certifications

 

8. Donabedian established a framework for evaluating health service quality along the continuum of Structure, Process and Outcomes. Which of the following would not be a “Process” type of indicator in Donabedian’s Triad?
9. Prophylactic antibiotic received within 1 hour prior to surgery
10. Amount of time from arrival at the emergency department (ED) to beginning of treatment
11. Documentation of current medications in medical record
12. Number of readmissions within 30 days of discharge
13. Documentation of use of a safe surgery checklist

 

9. Donabedian established a framework for evaluating health service quality along the continuum of Structure, Process and Outcomes. Which of the following would not be an “Outcome” type of indicator in Donabedian’s Triad?

 

1. Measures of patient experience
2. Number of surgery patients with appropriate hair removal prior to arrival in the operating room
3. Risk-standardized complication rate
4. Risk-adjusted mortality rate
5. Number of ventilator-associated pneumonias

 

10. An environmental scan performed during a SWOT analysis
11. helps the firm determine the impact the company makes on the environment
12. helps the firm gauge external forces over which it has no or limited control
13. helps the firm identify opportunities to gain competitive advantage
14. helps the firm identify threats that should be mitigated
15. b, c, and d, but not a

 

11. What is the primary purpose of a strategy map?
12. Link strategic initiatives with “if–then” statements
13. Link strategies to the organization chart
14. Display the key process indicators
15. Map the movement of patients within a hospital

Answer: a

12. Ideally, the alignment of a business strategy and functional strategies is the result of
13. a top-down approach
14. a bottom-up approach
15. both a top-down and a bottom-up approach
16. collaboration between the OM and the CEO
17. collaboration between the OM and the CFO

 

13. A balanced scorecard
14. should be created after the fiscal year is closed when all data are finalized as it is best used to summarize past progress toward long-term goals

 

1. should be action-oriented, focused on strategic goals, and be updated frequently to guide quick progress toward “doable” action items
2. is used as a monitoring system to track progress and watch areas needing improvement
3. should never be linked to personnel reviews or pay incentives
4. both b and c are correct

 

14. A walk-in clinic promises that, due to their lean, efficient methods, any patient can come to their facility and receive high-quality care from award-winning providers for a $15 standard office visit copay and never wait more than 20 minutes to be seen. This clinic has chosen which business strategy?
15. Prospector
16. Analyzer
17. Low cost defender
18. Differentiated defender
19. None of the above

 

 

15. The average wait to be seen at any of the three emergency departments (ED) in town is 4 hours. To win orders based on delivery, your hospital should
16. ensure wait times in the ED stay between 3:45 and 4:15
17. reduce wait times to 3 hours or less
18. triage patients to ensure critical cases are seen first
19. divert patients to other EDs when wait times are more than 4 hours
20. produce a marketing campaign to highlight other aspects of your hospital to divert focus from wait times if they become 5 hours or more

16. The project road map that clearly states why the project is being done, the benefits of the project, the team member and the timeline for completion is called
17. a business case
18. a problem statement
19. a project charter
20. a goal statement
21. the project scope

 

17. The scope of a project is defined by which of the following?

 

1. Performance, quality, and cost
2. Time, cost, and number of employees affected
3. Cost, time, and the critical path
4. Cost, time, and performance

 

18. The critical path in project management is used to

 

1. determine the total cost of a project.
2. determine which tasks have the greatest risk of not being done on time.
3. determine which tasks are linked and, if accomplished on time, will result in the shortest duration for the project.
4. determine if the predecessors relationships are incorrect.

 

Process analysis

1. creates an understanding of the activities of the process
2. shows what type of project model should be used
3. helps evaluate the performance of a process
4. a and b are correct, but not c
5. a and c are correct, but not b

 

19. Process redesign does not occur until
20. the current process has been thoroughly controlled
21. the process has been modeled and analyzed
22. the organizational strategy has been implemented
23. new tools have been implemented
24. performance gaps have been eliminated

 

 

20. The operations management (OM) professional asks for a simple model, which depicts how a lab order is processed by the hospital. Which of the following is the most simple, yet informative, diagram the laboratory director could produce to meet this request?
21. A swim-lane chart with many players and sub-processes
22. A flowchart
23. A value stream map
24. A Gantt chart
25. A computer-generated simulation

 

21. A value stream map depicts
22. activities that are valuable to the hospital
23. activities that are valuable to the customer
24. activities that are annoying to the customer
25. b and c are correct, but not a
26. a and b are correct, but not c

 

22. Non-value-added steps in a process may include
23. avoidable movements
24. long waits
25. rework
26. compliance with procedures
27. a, b, and c are correct, but not d

 

23. At a time when the strategic emphasis is on producing value in healthcare, processes should be designed to
24. increase revenue by incorporating additional diagnostic testing
25. increase revenue by using additional supplies throughout the process
26. minimize errors and maximize efficiency
27. boost services to a an ever increasing variety of patients
28. keep quality employees by staffing more nurses per patient

 

24. Line balancing is a step-by-step procedure. It does NOT involve
25. efficiency calculations
26. cost balancing concerns
27. the total time required to complete all tasks divided by the longest time allowed at a process step
28. a trial-and-error approach
29. minimizing handoffs

 

25. Using a whole system approach to optimization
26. costs more money because the whole system is a large entity, which costs a lot to change
27. aids quality, cost, delivery, and flexibility
28. considers the impact of process changes on upstream and downstream functions
29. a and b are correct, but not c
30. b and c are correct, but not a

 

26. Statistical process control is used to determine whether
27. processes are stable and generating output in a reliable fashion
28. the calculated statistics are capable of controlling the process
29. processes include adequate flexibility for random variations
30. processes are reproducible and environmentally sustainable
31. process metrics display a distribution other than the normal distribution

 

27. The ability of a process to produce outputs within specification limits is depicted by the
28. process specificity
29. process variability
30. process run test
31. process capability
32. process attributes

 

28. The process __________________ indicate(s) how well the process distribution is centered with respect to the process requirements.
29. capability ratio
30. control limits
31. capability index
32. standard deviation
33. attributes

 

29. The amount of time from admission to the emergency department ED) until treatment begins would be
30. an attribute
31. a variable
32. a standard deviation
33. both a and b are correct
34. none of the above are correct

 

 

30. The expected wait time for each patient in the clinic waiting room is 10 to 20 minutes. On Tuesday, you wait 35 minutes in the waiting room. This is an example of
31. statistical process analysis
32. statistical process control
33. process variation
34. normal distribution
35. random distribution

 

31. A broken dialysis machine that causes a delay in treatment is an example of
32. common or random variation in a process
33. assignable variation in a process
34. poor process design
35. a failure in the internal process
36. a cause for process redesign

 

32. Control charts are Statistical Process Control tools
33. used to determine if a process is performing as expected
34. used to depict whether sample output is within the statistical control limits
35. used to track the performance of a process
36. all of the above are correct
37. both a and c are correct

 

33. Random process variation
34. falls within ±6 standard deviations from the mean
35. falls within ±3 standard deviations from the mean
36. includes ±6 sums of the deviation variables
37. is depicted by the central lines of a statistical process control chart
38. can be corrected by 6 redesigns of an internal process or system

 

34. If some of the output values of a process fall outside of the three-sigma limits of the distribution,
35. the process is deemed out of control
36. assignable causes of variation are present
37. assignable causes of variation should, generally, be eliminated
38. all of the above are correct
39. b and c only are correct

 

35. If a process is in control, but not capable of meeting the process requirements, what should be done?
36. The process control limits should be recalculated
37. The process should be changed or redesigned
38. The process requirements should be changed
39. The process attributes should be reevaluated
40. The process variables should be altered

 

36. The control chart you use to monitor the number of cases of ventilator-associated pneumonias (VAPs) indicates that the data has been below the lower control limit for the past 90 days. What should you do?
37. Continue to monitor the data with no other response as this is not a significant enough change to warrant investigation
38. The process is out of control; you should investigate and remove the assignable variation in order to return the process to operating within the previously established control limits
39. The process is not in control; you should investigate the assignable variation that caused the desirable result so that an improved process can be consistently in place
40. Results below the control limits are always ignored; they are meaningless
41. Results below the control limits should be deleted and the calculations repeated once these outliers are removed
42. Which of the following is most important in designing and/or managing continuous flow processes?
43. Scheduling work so that workers are fully utilized
44. Keeping raw material inventories low
45. Matching system capacity to demand
46. Keeping work-in-process inventories low

 

38. True or false: A highly customized product could typically be produced more efficiently in a continuous flow process than in a job shop.
39. True
40. False

 

39. Process Flow Diagram for Making a Shirt

Consider the following process flow diagram for making a shirt. All steps (A, B, C, D, and E) are necessary to create each finished unit (shirt). Each step employs a single worker. Exact task times, in minutes/unit, are shown at each step. For example, it takes exactly 4 minutes to stitch the front and back of the shirt.

Refer to the Process Flow Diagram for Making a Shirt. Consider the entire system (all steps). What is the entire system’s minimum cycle time?

1. 4 minutes/unit
2. 12 minutes/unit
3. 5 minutes/unit
4. 10 minutes/unit

 

40. Refer to the Process Flow Diagram for Making a Shirt. Assume that the process operates eight hours a day. What is its daily capacity, in units per day?
41. 13 units/day
42. 40 units/day
43. 48 units/day
44. 96 units/day
45. None of these answers are correct.
46. Refer to the Process Flow Diagram for Making a Shirt. Assume that the entire process is running at bottleneck pacing. Consider only the task of preparing the front, task A, in isolation from the rest of the process. What is the approximate labor utilization at task A?
47. 5%
48. 33%
49. 42%
50. 83%
51. 100%
52. Companies can improve their performance objectives by making trade-offs between achieving low cost and providing various types of differentiation. In this view, companies must align their performance objectives with the business strategy. Performance objectives that operations managers might directly trade off to limit the range of activities while seeking operations focus should include:
53. cost, capacity, process technology, and information technology.
54. delivery, operational specialization, complexity and flexibility.
55. cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility.
56. none of these answers is correct

 

43. True or false: Conformance quality is ultimately a measurement of the outputs; therefore companies can achieve quality by strengthening their inspection process to ensure that all defective products or services are detected and discarded.
44. True
45. False

 

44. Errors or significant deviations from specifications in a product or part are called ______.
45. defects
46. tolerances
47. performance specifications
48. mistakes

 

45. In analyzing an X chart consisting of 50 sample means, which of the following conditions indicates that a process step is out of control?
46. Any point that falls below the lower control limit
47. Ten consecutive points that are either all above or all below the mean line
48. Ten consecutive points that trend either upward or downward
49. Any point that falls above the upper control limit
50. All of the answers are correct.

 

46. The objective of process control is to:
47. determine whether process variability is stable.
48. describe the inherent variability of a process.
49. improve performance quality.
50. determine whether a process is capable of producing within specifications.
51. determine the optimal level of inspection.