Introduction:
As the population of the world increases, a reduction in health care costs becomes a paramount significance. Within the last few decades, most researchers have attempted to come up with a way of reducing the costs of hospital systems that can assist in maintaining and even improving the quality of healthcare. Surgical units, for example, are a major section of hospitals cost containment for a different reason. One, the surgical units form part of the most costly and least applied units in a hospital. Second reason is that a patient who undergoes surgical operations forms a significant part of the demand for other hospital departments. For this reason, increased utilization of surgical units has extreme importance in meeting the increasing demand for the services of healthcare and reducing costs that assist in improving service quality. Thirdly, surgical units directly have effects on other operations of the hospital’s units such as management of resources, financial management, and purchasing accompanied with waiting times of the patients. Therefore, it has a high potential for reducing costs also in such areas.
Part 1: Research Method
A. The study was focused on qualitative data collection. In the qualitative data collection method, both primary and secondary data was applied.
B. This data collection technique entails descriptions of characteristics and scenarios that the researcher intends to deduce from the chosen population. The researcher used information gathered from secondary sources as well as primary sources. The primary source used was interview questions that were administered on the employees working in the healthcare centers. Interview is an efficient way to gather information, speech combined with some non-verbal communication can be used to get what the person intends to express.
C. The study included use of open- ended questions; this makes it difficult to replicate the answers and allows the data analysis to be even more subjective (Chandra and Sharma, 2013). The interviews were done by use of questionnaires; fifty participants were given the forms to fill in the data. The information was then collected and analyzed. The secondary data was obtained from scholarly journals. This books and articles contained information from experiments and research done previously. Some of them had peer reviews meaning that experts in the healthcare industry had gone through them and verified the information they had. The reviews ensure that the data collected is valid, accurate and relevant to the industry (Zou and Sunindijo, 2015).
Part 2: Research Design
A. The study design chosen for this study was a qualitative interview study, in this study a cross sectional approach was taken.
B. According to Macklin (2012), the approach is considerate when it comes to time, and the subjects get to answer the questions in the particular environment (Macklin, 2012). The researcher uses the subjects in a specified period to ensure all the data is collected and the environment of study is not manipulated.
C. Lack of manipulation makes the study relevant, as the researcher does not get the opportunity to influence people who are not targeted in the study to participate (Mackey and Gass, 2015). In comparison to the longitudinal study that the subjects are studied over a long period of time, the approach was more convenient. Longitudinal study gives the study time to develop as it is observed but in this case, the topic of study being comparison of strategies that are already in place it is beneficial to use the cross sectional study. The study will therefore be based on the perspective of the employees in healthcare centers.
D. Data Analysis Analysis was done after the data was collected and all the questionnaires were checked for completeness. The researcher was then went through all the answered questions and compiled the findings. Unlike in a quantitative study where the study depends mostly of the tool of data collection, the researcher is mostly the tool of analysis for the data collected from the subjects (Kumar, 2012). The challenge of analyzing the data is mainly in the validation of the data, as the researcher has to show evidence of the credibility of the work done.
Reference
Chandra, S., & Sharma, M. K. (2013). Research methodology. Oxford: Alpha Science International Ltd.
Kumar, C. R. (2012). Research methodology.
Macklin, R. 2012. A Global Ethics Approach to Vulnerability. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics. 5 (2) p.64-81 [online]Available at<philpapers.org/rec/macage- 2>Accessed 6 August 2015
Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2015). Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge.
Zou, P. X., & Sunindijo, R. Y. (2015). Research Methodology and Research–Practice Nexus. Strategic Safety Management in Construction and Engineering, 180-213.
