Decision Making Decision-making

Scenario

Anderson Children's Hospital (ACH) is an internationally known and recognized pediatric hospital that provides the full range of services from primary to critical care units, located in San Francisco, CA with affiliated care centers throughout the Bay Area. The board of directors at ACH would like to create a mobile-crisis program to be piloted in the City of San Francisco and eventually grow to service the entire Bay Area. The following sections present the process through which the Board of Directors is trying to navigate towards its final decision.

Core question

At the core of the following proposal is this 2-part question: Should ACH create a mobile crisis program to be piloted in the City of San Francisco for (up to) one year with the intent of expanding its funding, personnel, and service area over the next 3-5 years throughout the entire Bay Area and if so, what does the process look like?

Within this core question arise several questions to be addressed by the decision-making process, and those questions are listed as follows:

(1) What services will be offered by this program? Who will benefit from its services? Who will be involved with the provision of these services?

(2) Who will be in charge?

(3) What are the risks of these services? Who is liable should such risks be realized? What risk management procedures will be employed?

(4) How much funding is necessary for up to one year of a pilot program? (a) How many personnel and what levels of credentials are necessary for those implementing the program? (b) What resources are needed to ensure that personnel are more than prepared for any situation and what are the proposed hours of operation?

(5) How will contracts be created to incorporate this role into the existing contractual agreements for personnel? Or should entirely separate...

Should the program exceed all expectations, the expansion process will begin early. Periodic evaluation will take place in the year period and a plan will be in place to cut the program should it become unmanageable (as determined by measurable criteria) before the one-year period.
Section II: Decision making

Roles and strategy

The intent of the mobile-crisis program is to enhance the level of crisis-intervention and ongoing wraparound services for the entire San Francisco community and hopefully decrease the amount of emergencies and injuries caused by emergencies by intervening at moments in which a crisis can be de-escalated. These services are intended for situations that involve one or any number of minors. Services will be rendered in teams with the following personnel on each team: One psychological professional with required credentials; One allied health professional with required credentials; One SFPD officer; One driver trained in crisis management/intervention procedures. Teams will be equipped with the resources necessary to deal with any and all circumstances in the field as well as radio connection with SFFD to request fire/paramedic services directly. Personnel on…