Reference no: EM133182537

You are the director of pharmacy services for an academic medical center that has four pharmacies, including three that provide 24-hour service. The pharmacy providing 24-hour service to the emergency room (ER) has been particularly difficult to staff on the second and third shifts for the past 6 months. The pharmacy supervisor for the second shift has complained to you that she regularly spends 2-3 hours a night, at least three times a week, backing up the ER pharmacy staff.

Besides the fact that this work is not in her job description, she is concerned that she is not able to provide pharmacy consultation to medical and surgical residents who are on call, or to comply with the hospital's risk management protocol for all of the hospital's pharmacy services, because of her disrupted schedule. She confronted you as you arrived at the medical center at 7:00 A.M. today, angrily announcing that she is tired of waiting for more staff and tired of being overworked and abused: "If something isn't done by Friday night's shift, you can find yourself another pharmacy supervisor." Today is Tuesday.

1. Use the first four steps of the six-step decision-making process to address this matter. Use your imagination to fill in details on the data collection for Step 1 and compose a succinct problem statement.

2. Compose a detailed outline of Steps 2-4. Include at least three alternative courses of action and three standards and criteria for evaluating each alternative.