KindCare hospital, located in the small industrial town of Chinar, is one of…
XAT 2025 · Decision Making · 3 questions
KindCare hospital, located in the small industrial town of Chinar, is one of the largest hospitals within 50-kilometers radius. It is well-regarded among the locals for emergency services.
However, for critical surgeries, they prefer to travel to the nearest city Shamili, which is 100 kilometers away.
When KindCare was established 50 years ago, the town was still in its early stages of development. Consequently, the hospital needed to incorporate several facilities within its premises, including a 24-hour cafeteria, to accommodate needs of the patients and their relatives who would come from nearby places. Another facility that KindCare built and takes pride in is its state-of-the-art testing lab. It is the most sought-after testing lab in Chinar even today when many independent labs have come up around KindCare. Moreover, many other facilities have also come up in the surrounding area of the hospital such as pharmacies, food joints, hotels etc. Further, a standalone pharmacy chain has gained a strong foothold in Chinar as they expand their reach into Tier-3 cities.
When it comes to KindCare, a significant proportion of its patients are outpatients with a substantial number seeking emergency services. As the sole 600-bed hospital in the region, KindCare plays a crucial role in medical services, and receives generous funding from two major corporations operating locally, further enabling KindCare to cater to the growing medical needs of the community.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, KindCare made significant investment in enhancing internet connectivity, enabling many doctors, and the majority of administrative staff, to seamlessly work remotely. This investment also allowed KindCare to bring in doctors from other cities through remote care.
Further, COVID-19 was a wakeup call for KindCare to enhance their infrastructure. Though KindCare made significant improvements, they kept the major renovations on hold due to the constant flow of patients. KindCare believes that if the held renovations are not taken up on an urgent basis now, the operations at the hospital will get obstructed.
Question 1
KindCare feels that it needs to be better prepared before a similar situation like COVID-19 chances upon the city again. The hospital decides to invest immediately in improving their infrastructure. However, this would mean that, temporarily, it should either reduce, or shut down the operations of a few departments.
It is considering the following options:
A) Reduce their outpatient capacity to half
B) Shut down the cafeteria for the period of renovation
C) Ask their administrative staff to work remotely
D) Strip the pharmacy operations down to emergency and critical medications
E) Shut down the medical lab, and arrange medical tests from a local lab
Which of the following combinations will LEAST affect the functioning of the hospital?
KindCare needs to maintain a large inventory of medicines and other auxiliary supplies in their storage unit. The storage unit ensures adequate and timely supply to Intensive Care Unit and the emergency services, and always runs to capacity. The renovation team suggests that the storage unit be shut down for seven days for urgent renovation. However, the hospital building being old, in the past, renovation work had stretched beyond estimated time.
Which of the following actions BEST ensures KindCare operates efficiently during the renovation of the storage unit?
A. Renovate the storage unit part by part while halving the capacity of the emergency services until the renovation completes.
B. Shut down the hospital until further notice, except for the emergency ward, which can run on outside supplies.
C. Shut down the cafeteria until further notice and relocate the storage unit.
D. Rent a large space, about one hour away from the hospital, for seven days.
E. Start building a new storage facility, as their capacity is already stretched.
KindCare Hospital has to renovate its storage unit, given the complexity of the medicines and the need to store other critical supplies. The renovation is supposed to take seven days. However, as the work starts, the team entrusted with the work realizes that the work will take more than 15 days. KindCare feels that even this revised estimate is modest. Already the outpatient services are affected, and people visiting the hospital are being turned away. Stretching it further will attract a strong public resentment.
Which of the following actions offers the MOST sustainable solution for KindCare to reduce the number of patients being turned away?
A. Resume some operations from rented spaces, scattered around the region.
B. Start reduced operations gradually, and hire a team of experts to find ways to expedite the renovation.
C. Arrange with a larger hospital, in Shamili, to take over their critical patients.
D. Bring in a reputed renovation team at triple the cost, which guarantees to finish this work in three days.
E. Stop the renovation work immediately, and resume normal operations.
PrepTarget