Friendly Assisted Living Facility Resource Usage The team for the Assisted Living Facility (ALF) program was working to prepare in-depth plans, complete with the resource requirements for their projects' tasks. Marc Alison MD, the Medical Director of Rehabilitation Services for Friendly Medical Center was responsible for developing a project plan with the objec- mve of identifying the scope and associated costs of health services to offer residents . The Medical Director included in the plan the development of an assessment tool that would be used to determine the required level and cost of care for prospective residents. This tool would also be used to ensure that the appropriate population was housed at the facility. It was important to have a way to distin- guish a person who was too sick and needed a more intense level of care than that offered by the Assisted Living Facility. Once the assessment of a potential resi- dent was completed, the facility staff could determine if the person assessed was a good candidate for the facility. This phase of the project plan was critical to the success of the project. Dr. Alison's approach was to develop the assessment tool and test it on individuals that matched the marketing department's target population of the assisted living facil- ity. He felt he had a great opportunity to find his test popu- lation by using some of the current Friendly Medical Center patients who were almost ready for discharge from the hospital. He could also use some of the older volun- teers who currently worked at the hospital. Dr. Alison felt strongly that a physician should assess potential residents but he also knew that it might be cost prohibitive to have such an expensive resource conducting pre-admission assessments. He thought that if a physician developed and tested the tool first, then additional resting could be con- ducted using less costly health care professionals to con- duct the evaluations. Dr. Alison knew he would have to work with Dr. Zen Link, Head of Geriatric Medicine, on developing the tool. Dr. Link was familiar with the elderly population that the marketers were targeting and could offer valuable insights on how to assess the health status of potential residents. Dr. Link also had an extensive practice at Friendly Medical Center and would have some patients who might agree to help test the assessment tool. Dr. Alison would also need the services of the CFO and his staff to determine the cost of the health services the residents would need. Dr. Alison prepared and presented the following plan to the project steering team: CHAPTER 6 / ALLOCATING RESOURCES TO THE PROJECT 230 Resource Names Predecessors 10 Duration 48.25 days 25.75 days 2wks 6 hrs I wk 2 wks Alison, Link Alison, Link Alison, Link 3 4 5 6 Alison, Splient Legal 4 Task Name 1 Medical Health services determined 2 Physical health assessment tool for residents developed 3 Develop tool 4 Test of assessment tool conducted by physicians (12 patients) 5 Revise tool as necessary 6 Test of tool conducted by other health professionals (i.e., phys. asst., RN, therapist) 7 Admission & discharge criteria finalized 8 Investigate copyrighting assessment tool Assessment tool finalized 10 Copyright tool 11 Financial impact of health services determined 12 Coses determined 13 Scope of health services determined to include in base rate 14 Scope of services to provide on a fee for service basis 15 Finalize services and programs to be offered 7 9 8,9 1.5 wks 3 wks 0 days 0 days 15 days 1 wk 2 wks 2 wks 0 days 9 12 Alison, CFO Proj. Steering Team Proj. Steering Team 12 13, 14 The ALF team was impressed with the thought that went into Dr. Alison's project plan. They were delighted with the prospect of copyrighting an admission and dis- charge assessment tool, but they raised some questions about Dr. Alison's resource assignments. The COO asked how Drs. Alison and Link were going to assess a sufficient sample of people in 6 hours' time given their busy clinical schedules. Dr. Alison replied that he and Dr. Link would be doing all of the other steps in the plan during their nor- mal 8 AM to 5 PM workday. The step to test the tool on real patients, however, would take some scheduling. Dr. Alison added that his colleague intended to conduct evaluations of current patients, with their permission, during their regular office visits. Dr. Alison admitted he had not figured out how he was going to see his share of the test group. He knew he could see some inpatients ready for discharge from the hospital during the time he did his rounds. He also wanted to test the tool on at least a dozen people from the volunteer staff who matched the prospective resident population. He informed the team that his secretary had agreed to phone the volunteers and see if any of them were interested. She said she could do this during her normal workday, so he had not included her time in the plan. Dr. Alison sat silently thinking about how long this step in his plan would take, given his current workload. He knew that he would only be available to do the assess- ments during the time that he allocated for administrative hospital work, Wednesday from 8:00 AM to noon. He did not want to give up any of his clinic time, because hi patients had been scheduled months in advance. Dr. Alison wanted to personally test the tool on at least 12 people. He estimated each assessment would take no more than a half hour (that is why he said that step would take 6 hours to complete). Dr. Alison was not sure what to do next. He told the project team he would get back to them. QUESTIONS 1. Prepare a Gantt chart with resources for the project plan Dr. Alison submitted. Begin this project on January 3. Prepare a resource calendar for Dr. Alison. 2. How would you handle Dr. Alison's resource problem? 3. Given Dr. Alison's availability, how long will it take to complete testing of the assessment tool? 4. Prepare a Gantt chart for Dr. Alison's plan incorpo- rating any changes you recommend