Assignment #$1$ Develop a Business Case and Outline

the Project Scope

General Instructions

Assignment $1$ involves the development of a business case and project scope statement for a new

project. Choose from one of the $2$ projects listed below $($Options A or B$)$ for your assignment. If you

have a project idea of your own, bring it forward to the instructor for consideration.

Use the SBAR method for your business case. Emergency Department Annex

You are the Manager of the Emergency Department in a small, but busy rural hospital. You report to the

Director of Nursing who also has responsibility for the $4$ inpatient units in the hospital. Together, and

with support from the Chief of Emergency Medicine, you have been analyzing the increasing emergency

room visits over the last $3$ years. It is common knowledge that this increase in visits is a result of the loss

of $2$ of the local family physicians who left your small town $3$ years ago. The CEO of your hospital has

been working closely with members of town council on a recruitment campaign and have found $2$

physicians who can start in $10$ months$-$time.

In the meantime, however, you have come up with an idea to manage the increased volumes by

managing the throughput of patients in the department. Your observations are that patients who must

be admitted are often waiting in the emergency department up to $24$ hours for an inpatient bed. These

$$admitted but holding$$ patients are taking up exam rooms in the emergency department that could be

used to see patients from the waiting room. Several of the emergency room physicians have told you

that they could see more patients if there were more rooms to see them. You know that your Director

has an old ward room on one of her inpatient units $2$ floors above the emergency department that is not

on the current inpatient census. This ward room is used mainly during the flu season as overflow or

surge space. You believe that you can create an ED Annex in this space, for the admitted but holding

patients until their inpatient rooms become available. This will free up some space in the department to

move patients through the system.

Background:

$$ The charge nurse has been vocal about their lack of support for this plan.

$$ The nurses are unionized.

$$ The local paper regularly reports about the long wait times and town locals have been vocal in

the $$letter to the editor$$ section. They want to see a solution.