A hospital opens a mission control center to track patient flow, staffing, and safety events. What’s the main benefit of doing this?

• It helps teams report issues after problems occur

• It reduces the need for staff to communicate directly

• It allows the system to respond to issues as they happen

• It takes decision-making away from frontline providers

During a surge in emergency room visits, the operations center redirects some patients to nearby clinics and adjusts internal staffing. What does this response show?

• The center prioritizes lower-cost care settings

• The center can shift resources based on real-time needs

• The center can focus on replacing on-site leadership decisions

• The center is acting to reduce long-term admissions

The operations team sees repeated delays in imaging because transport services are overbooked. What response reflects the most strategic approach?

• Delay non-urgent imaging until staff numbers improve

• Train more staff to help with patient transportation

• Collaborate with both teams to prioritize tasks

• Assign the transport team a fixed daily quota

The command center tracks a wide range of data, including infection rates, wait times, and discharge delays. Why is this variety useful?

• It gives managers more to include in their monthly reports

• It simplifies staff performance reviews

• It helps identify links between clinical and operational issues

• It ensures the hospital can compare metrics with national and global averages

After a technology failure, the command center coordinates staffing, patient care, and communication while systems are restored. What role is it playing?

• Backing up IT functions when systems crash

• Directing legal compliance during an outage

• Centralizing leadership to maintain care

• Managing staff scheduling during clinical downtimes

The operations center finds that patients discharged on weekends are more likely to be readmitted within a week. What would be a well-informed next step?

• Encourage physicians to mainly discharge on weekdays

• Set a rule requiring weekday follow-up calls

• Test a discharge plan that includes weekend support

• Use the data to reduce weekend discharge volumes

A command center includes staff from clinical care, IT, logistics, and planning. Why is this mix important?

• It ensures there’s input from someone from each department

• It brings together different skills to solve system-wide problems

• It makes it easier to assign blame when something goes wrong

• It keeps decisions aligned with department policies

A hospital holds a drill simulating a large-scale power failure, with the mission control team leading the response. Why is this exercise valuable?

• It ensures compliance with emergency training rules

• It prepares senior staff for crisis communication

• It reveals weak points before a real emergency happens

• It gives new employees a chance to observe protocol

A rural operations center helps coordinate telehealth visits, delivery of medications, and at-home lab testing. What problem is this helping to solve?

• The lack of doctors in mostly rural areas

• Unequal access to care due to limited resources

• Rising patient demand for virtual services

• Scheduling conflicts in small regional clinics

Command centers are becoming more common in healthcare systems. Why are they so valuable today?

• They reduce the need for department heads to meet regularly

• They give staff access to more performance data

• They help teams make better decisions when problems arise

• They meet requirements for using health IT grants