| Course | D915 Resource Management and Performance |
|---|---|
| Task | Task 1 |
| Paper type | Performance improvement recommendation |
| Length | About 1,000 words, 4 pages |
| Format | APA 7 |
| School | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Program | Master of Healthcare Administration |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for D915 Task 1
One First Case in Eight Waits for Instruments: Performance Metrics, Resource Causes and a Costed Recommendation for a Composite Hospital's Sterile Processing Department
Student Name
Leavitt School of Health, Western Governors University
D915: Resource Management and Performance, Task 1
Course Instructor
Month Day, Year
One First Case in Eight Waits for Instruments: Performance Metrics, Resource Causes and a Costed Recommendation for a Composite Hospital's Sterile Processing Department
The Department and Its Stakeholders
Cedar Ridge Medical Center is a composite 280-bed hospital with 12 operating rooms that perform about 14,500 procedures a year. Its sterile processing department, staffed by 26 technicians across three shifts, cleans, inspects, assembles and sterilizes roughly 1,850 instrument sets. The department's internal customers are surgeons, operating room nurses and anesthesia staff; its external partners are the device companies that lend specialized instrument trays, called loaner trays, for implant cases. For the past year, surgeons have complained that cases start late because trays are missing instruments, contain broken instruments or arrive late. The chief operating officer has asked for an analysis of the department's performance and a recommendation.
Key Performance Indicators
The table compares the department's results over the past six months with its targets and with benchmarks the hospital's perioperative committee uses.
| Indicator | Current | Target | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| First cases delayed by an instrument problem | 12.5% (1 in 8) | Under 3% | Well above target; affects the whole day's schedule |
| Tray defects found in the operating room per 100 trays opened | 4.1 | 1 or fewer | Missing, broken or wrong instruments reach the surgeon |
| Median hours from case end to tray ready | 5.8 | 4 or fewer | Trays are not ready for afternoon and next-morning cases |
| Technicians holding a sterile processing certification | 11 of 26 (42%) | 100% within 18 months, per hospital policy | Skill gap in inspection and assembly |
| Annual technician turnover | 38% | Hospital average of 17% | Constant training of new staff |
| Loaner trays delivered by the contract deadline of 48 hours before surgery | 61% | 95% | Rushed processing of complex implant trays |
Tracing Performance to Resources
Human resources. More than half the technicians are not certified, and more than a third leave each year, so the department is always training. Staffing is also misaligned with demand: most cases end between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., but the largest shift works from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., so instruments pile up in the evening and some trays are still being assembled when the first morning cases are called. Inspection is where inexperience shows. In a direct-observation study of pediatric operating rooms, 236 instrument errors affected 147 cases, and failures of visualization, such as missing, broken or contaminated instruments that should have been caught at inspection or assembly, accounted for 88.6% of errors; delayed cases averaged about 10 minutes of delay (Nichol et al., 2024).
Physical resources. Two of the department's six washers have had repeated breakdowns this year, reducing capacity during the evening peak. The department still uses paper count sheets, so technicians assemble trays from memory and a printed list without images of the instruments. Many trays are larger than they need to be. When researchers in Chicago watched 49 procedures and 237 trays, they saw surgeons use only 13% to 22% of the instruments on a tray, depending on the specialty, and that more instruments per tray was associated with a higher instrument error rate (Stockert & Langerman, 2014).
Vendors. Loaner trays that arrive the evening before or the morning of surgery must be processed in a hurry, often by the least experienced night staff, and they are among the most complex sets the department handles. Only 61% arrived by the 48-hour deadline in the vendors' contracts, but the hospital has never enforced it.
Recommendation
Five changes address the causes, in order of cost.
Realign staffing. Move three technician positions from the day shift to a 1:30 p.m. to midnight shift to match the case-end peak. Cost: none beyond a shift differential of about $25,000 a year.
Enforce vendor contracts. Require loaner trays 48 hours before surgery, reschedule elective implant cases whose trays arrive late unless the surgeon and department agree otherwise, and send each vendor a monthly on-time delivery scorecard. Cost: staff time only.
Build a certified workforce. Pay certification exam fees, provide paid study time and add a $1.50 an hour certification differential, so that certification is a path to better pay rather than an unpaid expectation. Cost: about $95,000 a year once all technicians are certified, partly offset by lower turnover.
Optimize trays. With surgeons, review the 30 most-used trays and remove instruments that are rarely used. Standardizing and reducing tray variety has been shown to shorten reprocessing time, especially for new technicians, and to improve staff satisfaction (Pathak et al., 2026). Cost: staff and surgeon time.
Invest in tools. Purchase an instrument tracking system with digital count sheets and photographs of each instrument, and replace the two failing washers. Cost: about $390,000 one time and $38,000 a year.
The expected return is substantial. If instrument problems currently delay about 6% of the hospital's 14,500 cases by an average of 10 minutes, the delays consume about 8,700 operating room minutes a year. At the hospital's internal cost estimate of $40 per operating room minute, that is roughly $350,000 a year, before counting surgeon frustration, overtime and the risk of a missing instrument during a procedure.
Tracking Performance
The sterile processing manager will report the six indicators monthly on a one-page dashboard to the perioperative executive committee, with vendor scorecards attached. Each indicator has an owner: the manager for defects and turnaround, human resources for certification and turnover, and the materials manager for vendor delivery. If an indicator misses its target for two consecutive months, its owner will present the cause and a correction. After six months, the committee will decide whether to extend tray optimization to the next 50 trays. The department will also survey surgeons and operating room nurses twice a year on instrument quality, because a satisfied internal customer is itself a sign that the changes are working.
Conclusion
Cedar Ridge's surgical delays are not the fault of a few careless technicians. They come from staffing that does not match demand, an uncertified and constantly changing workforce, oversized trays, outdated tools and vendors held to a deadline no one enforces. Managing those resources deliberately, and measuring the results every month, can bring first-case delays down to the committee's target while saving far more than the changes cost.
References
Nichol, P. F., Saari, M. J., Navas, N., Aguilar, D., Bliesner, R. K., Brunner, P. J., Caceres, J. C., Chen, M., VanDommelen, A. R., Fischer, M., Garcha, S., Ghawas, E. A., Hackinson, G. R., Hitzeman, A., Jabbour, M., Jentsch, A. M., Kurth, M. M., Leyden, M., Luo, Q., . . . Wisdorf, S. S. (2024). Observed rates of surgical instrument errors point to visualization tasks as being a critically vulnerable point in sterile processing and a significant cause of lost chargeable OR minutes. BMC Surgery, 24, Article 110. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12893-024-02407-1
Pathak, A., Sahi, G., Du, J. T., Abbas, A., Shah, A., Lex, J. R., Yee, A., Larouche, J., & Toor, J. (2026). Standardizing inventory reduces reprocessing time and costs through worker task familiarity in medical devices. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 48(1). https://doi.org/10.1097/JHQ.0000000000000511
Stockert, E. W., & Langerman, A. (2014). Assessing the magnitude and costs of intraoperative inefficiencies attributable to surgical instrument trays. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 219(4), 646-655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2014.06.019
What the D915 Task 1 instructions ask
The first D915 task asks you to evaluate a department's performance and recommend improvements based on how resources are managed. The work covers the department and who depends on it, a set of key performance indicators, results compared with targets or benchmarks, weak results traced to human, physical or financial causes, costed changes and a plan for tracking performance. Graders want indicators that matter to the department's purpose, comparisons that show the size of each gap, causes supported by evidence, recommendations tied to causes and a tracking plan. Recommending new equipment or staff without tracing the problem to that resource falls short of the analysis aspects. Vendor performance counts as a resource when the department depends on outside services.
How this D915 Task 1 example is built
The recommendation opens with the hospital, its operating rooms and the department's staffing and hours. Stakeholders are named with what each needs from sterile processing. A table sets six indicators beside targets and benchmarks, so the weakest results stand out. The tracing section takes human, physical and vendor resources in turn and links each weak indicator to a specific cause with evidence. Five recommendations follow in order of cost, each with the cause it answers and a price. A short calculation compares the total with the value of operating room minutes recovered. The tracking section describes a one-page monthly dashboard with vendor scorecards, and the conclusion states that the delays come from systems rather than careless staff.
Where the D915 Task 1 rubric puts the marks
D915 Task 1 aspects are scored competent, approaching competence or not evident. A department aspect asks for a clear description and stakeholders. An indicators aspect rewards measures suited to the department's work. A comparison aspect looks for targets or benchmarks. A resource analysis aspect wants weak results traced to human, physical and financial or vendor causes. A recommendation aspect asks for changes tied to causes, with costs. A tracking aspect looks for a reporting plan. Graders notice when recommendations are ordered and costed, which helps leaders choose, and they expect evidence on sterile processing, workforce certification and turnover to be cited where causes are claimed. Clear tables help.
D915 Task 1 help: what sends it back
The weakest D915 papers list indicators without targets, so the reader cannot tell which results are poor. Add the target and a benchmark for each. Another common gap is causes that are assumed; point to data such as certification rates, turnover or equipment downtime. Recommendations are sometimes broad, such as hire more staff; name the role, the hours and the cost. Vendor performance is often ignored even when repairs or loaner trays drive delays, so include it. Finally, tracking is left vague. Name the dashboard, the audience and the frequency so leaders know when they will see whether the changes worked.
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D915 Task 1 questions, answered
Is the D915 hospital real?
No. Cedar Ridge Medical Center and its results are invented for the sample. The research on sterile processing, technician certification and staff turnover cited in the paper is real.
Must D915 Task 1 cover sterile processing?
No. Choose a department your instructions allow. The sample uses sterile processing because its performance affects surgical delays, patient safety and operating room revenue in measurable ways.
Should D915 include vendor performance?
Yes, when the department depends on outside services. The sample traces delays to repair turnaround and loaner instrument trays and attaches vendor scorecards to the monthly dashboard.
How many indicators does D915 Task 1 need?
Follow your instructions. The sample uses six, enough to cover quality, timeliness and productivity without crowding the analysis, and compares each with a target and a benchmark.
Where can I find a free D915 Task 1 sample paper?
The sterile processing analysis is printed in full above with commentary. Tell us which department your D915 paper covers, and your first custom recommendation is written for you at no cost.