ABSTRACT
Much of the literature on operations research deals with extensions of theory without reference to their actual use in organizational analysis. The study reported here, however, is an attempt to analyze through the method of operations research the actual decision-making process of a large state health department in its administration and allocation of the Chronically 111 and Aged Services (CI&A) federal formula grant. This grant resulted from Congressional legislation designed to "increase the availability, scope and quality of outside-the-hospital services for the chronically ill and aged." The study should be regarded as an exploratory study in the use of operations research to evaluate a decision-making process in a public agency. Operations research may be defined as the application of scientific methods, techniques, and tools to problems involving the operations of systems in order to provide those in control of the operations with optimum solutions to their problems.
