Research Reports from the Department of Operations
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
3-1-1972
Abstract
This report discusses the major aspects of a recent study which was concerned with the supply and demand projections for anesthesia manpower in Cuyahoga County in Ohio for a ten year planning horizon (1970-1980); the identification of the constraints which contribute to the gap between current and 'ideal' manpower levels of anesthesiology; the development of an approach to the recruitment and training of anesthesiology manpower and the generation of information which would be useful in developing approaches to the improvement of anesthesia manpower utilization. The latter aspect of the study extends a previous effort by the authors which employed an Industrial Engineering technique known as Point Method of Job Evaluation. Tasks relating to pre-, intra- and post-operative phases of anesthesia administration are described and rated on the basis of skill, responsibility and effort for a representative sample of four hospitals in Cuyahoga County. This analysis of tasks together with their distribution in anesthesia leads to the development of a curriculum for training non-physician anesthesia personnel. The projections for the desirable levels of anesthesia personnel up to 1980 are made through the following three types of models: 1. considering demand for surgical procedures classified according to sex and age; 2. using regression models based on the relationship of supply of anesthesiologists to certain important demographic factors; and 3. using the Delphi method conducted among experts in the health care area to enrich the projections and obtain such information that could not be generated by the foregoing two models. The results of the study show a striking agreement in the predictions made through different models. The constraints that contribute to the gap between current and 'ideal' manpower levels in anesthesiology are identified and ranked in order of their importance through the Delphi exercise. The study also developed an extensive data base for the 22 hospitals in the county to provide a framework for major research work dealing with the problem of identifying the optimal manpower mix and levels for Cuyahoga County over the next 10 years.
Keywords
Industrial engineering, Operations research, Anesthesia, Hospitals--Anesthesia services--Planning, Job analysis, Anesthesiology--Ohio, Hospitals--Ohio--Cuyahoga County, Medical personnel--Supply and demand, Manpower planning, Medical personnel--Ohio, Cuyahoga County (Ohio), Delphi method, PERT (Network analysis)
Publication Title
Technical Memorandums from the Department of Operations, School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
Issue
Technical memorandum no. 259
Rights
This work is in the public domain and may be freely downloaded for personal or academic use
Recommended Citation
Gravenstein, J. S.; Esogbue, Augustine O.; Reisman, Arnold; Dean, Burton V.; Aggarwal, Vijaykumar V.; Kaujalgi, Vasant B.; and Lewy, Peter M., "Analysis and Forecasting of Anesthesia Manpower in Cuyahoga County, Ohio" (1972). Research Reports from the Department of Operations. 20.
https://commons.case.edu/wsom-ops-reports/20