Olena Tischler is embarking on her midpoint MBA internship, a position she developed with Northeast Regional Healthcare. The internship is divided among the operations of three different clinics and is focused on operational excellence. As the starting point of her summer analysis, Tischler ponders how each clinic defines "operations." After a hint that operations are not well defined within the health care environment, a timely dinner with her mother gives Tischler some useful food for thought. Although her mother is not a health care professional, she is an experienced manufacturing operations executive willing to share the operational definitions, history, and problems she has encountered throughout her career. Tischler—and the student—must compare and contrast the operational situations to forecast what problems she may encounter within health care operations.