Assignment: Medical Logistics

medical logistics/supply chain management
find a medical logistics or supply chain management case study. For our purposes, a case study is a real-life health care administrative situation involving a decision to be made or a problem or issue to be resolved.

Case studies in general are detailed accounts of an organization, company, industry, person or group of people, or project. The case study may include information about company objectives, strategies, challenges, results, recommendations, or more. The case study may be a real-life situation described in its entirety or so that portions of it are disguised for reasons of confidentiality. It may also be fictional.

Assignment: Medical Logistics

Assignment: Medical Logistics

Most case studies are written in such a way that the reader takes the place of the manager whose responsibility it is to make decisions to help resolve the problem or issue. In almost all case studies, a decision must be made, although this decision may be to leave the situation as it is. For this assignment, case studies can be brief or extensive and can range from several pages to 30 pages or more.

Where Can I Find Sample Case Studies?

The Internet is a great source of sample case studies to examine before you create your own. To find case study examples, conduct a search using the words sample case studies. For formatting help, click the link to see the Microsoft case study template.

Parts of the Project

This project consists of two parts:

Part 1 (2% of your final grade): Submit a summary of your case study situation and challenge/concern to be addressed. Upload your submission to the Assignment titled “Case Study and Challenge Selection” in week 4.
Part 2 (23% of your final grade): Submit a case study with the following:
opening paragraph—introduction to the situation
background organizational information—history, mission, values, competition, financial information, and additional information of significant value
area of interest—strategic planning, leadership, marketing, finance, health care operations, human resources
definition of the challenge/concern—specific problem or decision(s) to be made; this is your problem statement
alternative situations/solutions—list of options for meeting the challenge or concern
conclusion—summary of the situation, any constraints or limitations, and the urgency of the situation, with the best alternative presented and defended
Most but not all case studies will follow this format. The purpose here is for you to thoroughly understand the situation and the decisions/discussions that need to be made. Take your time and stay focused on your objectives.

Here, we’ll pay a bit more attention to the fourth and fifth components:

Defining the Challenge/Concern

The problem statement should be a clear and concise statement of exactly what issue or concern needs to be addressed. This is not challenging to write!

To pinpoint the challenge to be addressed, ask yourself the following questions:

What appears to be the issue/problem?
How do I know that this is a problem? Note that, in answering this question, you will differentiate the indicators of the problem from the problem itself.
What needs to be addressed immediately? Answering this will help you to differentiate between problems that can be resolved within the context of the case and larger issues that need to be addressed at a later time.
What is important and what is urgent? Some problems appear to be urgent, but upon closer examination, are revealed to be relatively unimportant, while others may be far more important than they are pressing.
The problem statement can be framed as a question (e.g., What should Sue do? or How can Mr. Smith improve? It typically has to be rewritten several times during the analysis of a case, as you peel back the layers of symptoms or causation.

Coming Up With Alternative Situations/Solutions

You’ll want to answer the following questions to come up with viable alternatives:

Why or how did the challenge/concern arise? You are trying to determine cause and effect for the problems identified. You cannot solve a problem of which you cannot determine the cause! It may be helpful to think of the organization in question as consisting of the following components:
people who transform. . .
resources, such as materials, equipment, or supplies, using. . .
processes, which create something of greater value
Who is affected the most by the challenge/concern? You are trying to identify the relevant stakeholders to the situation, and who will be affected by the decisions to be made.
What are the constraints and opportunities in this situation?

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.