Please see the attached case study. Get into groups of max. $6$ people and prepare your presentation slides to cover the following headings. Make sure to time yourself, max. $10$ to $12$ min. per group.

Introduction

Issue$($s$)$ identification

Root Cause Analysis

Alternatives or Options

Recommendations

Implementation

Monitor & Control

ConclusionQuinte MRI, Inc. was a small $($annual revenues of $$1\mathrm{.}5$ million$),1$ but growing, international service provider specializing in medical diagnostic technologies, including MRI, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, computerized tomography $($CT$)$ scanning, bone densitometry, mammography and teleradiology services. The company helped design, install and operate scanning centres, and provided continued training and support for data interpretation. It maintained a variety of exclusive or partnership business arrangements with both fixed$-$site and mobile

$1$AII currency in this case is expressed in United States dollars. In June $2002,$ the Canadian dollar traded at about US$$0\mathrm{.}63.$

service turnkey operations. Quinte I$\text{'}$s equipment and components were from many leading manufacturers.

Quinte I$\text{'}$s founder, Dr$.$ Syed Haider, received his PhD in electron spin resonance and nuclear magnetic resonance from the University of Wales. After a short time as professor at the University of Guelph, he became a physics and chemistry teacher at Centennial Secondary School in Belleville, Ontario, in $1968.$ When he retired $30$ years later, he started Quinte MRI. Haider firmly believed that the residents of small communities deserved the same level of health services as residents of large urban centres. However, I systems in small communities were rare. Haider's first attempt to establish an I facility $($in Belleville$)$ was unsuccessful because Canadian regulations prohibited private$-$sector I. Thus, he turned to the Caribbean and the United States.

Quinte I had established facilities in five locations: the company headquarters in Belleville; a partnership arrangement with a radiologist in Laval, Quebec; and private I clinics in St$.$ Louis, Missouri, the Cayman Islands, and Palmer, New York. With the exception of the Palmer facility, Quinte I held an interest of less than $20$ per cent in each clinic. In June $2002,$ the company employed a total of about $20$ people.

Quinte I served three distinct client groups:

$1.$ Hospitals seeking to outsource their diagnostic imaging services were particularly interested in service reliability, access to the diagnostic equipment $24$ hours per day, seven days per week and reasonable cost.

$2.$ Physicians wanting to be partners in an independent diagnostic imaging centre saw cash flow, accessibility to the equipment and the strength of the relationship with their diagnostic imaging partner as major criteria.

$3.$ Individuals wanting to operate their own diagnostic imaging centre, using Quinte I as a consultant in developing and carrying out the necessary steps to establish the clinic, wanted freedom from the hassles involved with establishing the business and were willing to pay a $10$ per cent project development fee.

SCANNING TECHNOLOGY$2$

Various scanning technologies produced high quality images of the human body. The most obvious imaging technique was to use a camera to capture a visual image on photographic film. Although this technology was simple, it could be invasive, as surgery or probes were required for images of internal tissues, and it was normally limited to the wavelength range of visible light.

$2$Much of the material in this section was adapted from the Web site: www$.$whitaker.org$/94\_$annual$\_$reportlover.html$,$ September $20,2002.$

Modem scanning began in $1895$ with the discovery that tissues absorbed X$-$rays. Although X$-$ray technology was relatively easy to use and gave high$-$resolution scans, the rays were penetrating and potentially dangerous,$3$ and gave unclear images of some body features. They were particularly suited for examining tissue abnormalities, such as fractures, malignant tumors and respiratory diseases.

The $1970$s saw the first of an explosion in imaging techniques, all of which relied on computers to help gather and analyse scanning data in electronic form. Computerized tomography $($CT$)$ relied on a series of X$-$rays from various angles that were combined to provide a three$-$dimensional picture from which two$$ dimensional images from any angle and at any depth could be derived. In positron emission tomography $($PET$),$ the patient ingested a positron$-$emitting radioactive substance that could be monitored as it proceeded through the body. In the closely related technique known as single$-$photon emission computed tomography $($SPECT$),$ the ingested active component emitted high$-$energy photons. In ultrasound $($US$),$ sound waves were bounced off tissues or objects inside the body; the reflected sound waves were converted into an image.

MRI relied on the fact that diamagnetic nuclei $($those with magnetic moments$)$ interacted with stron