Healthcare management capstone

Title of Your Paper in Upper and Lower Case

Your First and Last Name

Western Governors University

Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 The Client Organization 4 Business Challenge 4 Functional Areas 5 Organizational Obstacles 5 Recommendations 6 Implementation 7 Timeline 8 Financial Impact 10 Organizational Impact 11 References 12 Appendix A 13 Using this Outline: Critical Success Points 14

The executive summary should describe the most important aspects of the business report. It is not the introduction. Instead, it should give the reader a summary of the entire prospectus. Summarize the most important points of the project and provide enough information to explain what the reader will learn. This should be developed after the business report is finished. Include highlights of the following in your summary:

• statement of the business challenge

• functional areas to analyzed

• recommendations

• implementation and timeline

• financial impact

· organizational impact

Length: Approximately 1 to 2 pages, double-spaced

Format: Narrative

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Note: The executive summary should be a one to two page overview of the entire paper. It should contain a brief description of the problem to include the three functional areas and a brief overview of the solution including the financial impact. If this was the only portion that your client read, would they understand the problem that you were addressing and your recommended solution(s)? The executive summary should be submitted as the first section after the table of contents within the report.

Title of Your Paper in Upper and Lower Case

This is your introduction. After this paragraph starts your ideas based off your table of contents.

Length: Approximately 1 paragraph, double-spaced

Format: Narrative

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Note: You will begin with background information. You can use the information that you included in your problem statement, but you will need to elaborate to fully paint the picture of the organization in order to cover all of the required areas listed below.

A.1. Provide relevant information about the chosen organization, including each of the following:

● history of the company

● detailed description of the product/service offerings

● target market / competitors

● number of employees

● location

Note: Please provide this information in narrative form using complete sentences and paragraphs.

Length: Approximately 1/2 page, double-spaced

Format: Narrative (additional page if includes chart)

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Business Challenge

A.1.a. Summarize the business challenge that you identified in part A of task 3.

Note: You will need to provide the context in which the problem is occurring, and then succinctly state the business problem in one or two sentences. You will use the broad problem statement that was approved for task 3. It is important to remember that you need to discuss the context in which the problem exists and general information about the problem.

Length: Approximately 1/2 page, double-spaced

Format: Narrative (additional page if includes chart)

A.2. Analyze three functional areas (e.g., leadership, human resources, marketing, production, finance, IT) that are either contributing to or are impacted by the business challenge.

Length: Approximately 3–6 pages, double-spaced

Format: Narrative

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Note: Once you discuss the broad problem you will then have three subheadings for each of the functional areas. One or more of the functional areas must be contributing to the problem versus affected by the problem. You must discuss how each functional area is contributing to or is affected by the issue while including specific examples, details or statistics to support your discussion. There is a list of functional areas linked into the problem statement form. You must select from this approved list of functional areas. In this aspect of the task, you conduct a root cause analysis. The absence of supporting data or examples will cause this aspect to fail. The reason for the supporting data? You are asking a client to make a business decision that will require resources. Business decisions are data driven. There are two common errors student make in aspect A2. First, student begin to introduce solutions. This section is about convincing the client how the functional areas are either contributing to the problem, affect by the problem, or both. Second, students tend to try to use reasoning (because this, then that) and not or lacking statements as evidence. What Is not being done only points to what should be done. A reasoned explanation, no matter how well it is articulated, is only your opinion. Your job is to prove how the functional areas are contributing to or affected by the problem.

Organizational Obstacles

A.2.a. Discuss obstacles that have hindered organizational success.

Length: Approximately ½-1 page, double-spaced

Format: Narrative

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A.3. Develop recommendations to resolve the client’s business challenge while addressing each of the three functional areas from part A2.

Length: Approximately 3–6 pages, double-spaced

Format: Narrative

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Note: The appropriate number of recommendations will be based on the client’s business challenge and may vary based on addressing each of the functional areas. The solution identified in this section should discuss specifically how it will resolve or mitigate the problem for each of the three functional areas identified as contributing to or affected by the problem. Include substantial detail and specific examples to support your solution. Your overall solution may include several recommendations. This aspect will fail if your recommendations are not explained (what specifically are your recommending?) or if you do not explain the relationship between the solution/recommendation and the functional areas identified. Your task in this section is to explain what should be done (recommendation); how it will unfold, and how the recommendation resolves the problem for one or more functional areas.

A.4. Discuss specific actions or activities that will need to occur in order to carry out each of the recommendations. Describe each of the following for each action or activity discussed in part 4:

● people

● time

● equipment

● tools

● budget

● necessary processes to effectively implement recommendations

One way to undertake implementation analysis is to create a chart that identifies and assigns the resources per functional area. See the following example:

Table X (include number of table as it appears in the text)

Implementation Table Including Resources, Functional Areas, Additional Details and Costs

Length: Approximately 1–2 pages

Format: Narrative or chart

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A.5. Create a visual timeline that includes the start and end dates, milestones, and resources for each recommended action or activity from part 4. A table, spreadsheet, or Gantt chart could meet this requirement. See the following example:

Table X (include the table number based on the order it appears in the text)

Visual Timeline including Activities, Start and End Dates, Resources, and Durations

Length: Approximately 1 page

Format: Table or chart

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Note: The intent of this timeline is to provide the client with a visual overview of your recommended solution in terms of time and key steps (milestones). Failure to include start, stop, duration, and brief explanations may cause this aspect to fail. The timeline should answer the questions of how long it will take to implement your solution and in what sequence of events. This can be done as a Gantt chart or basic MS Excel spreadsheet. The timeline should include all key steps required to implement your solution. You want to ensure that you have consistency between the solution, implementation and timeline.

A.6. Analyze the potential long-term financial return on investment the company can expect based on implementing your recommendations.

Length: Approximately 1–2 pages, double-spaced

Format: Narrative

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A.7. Discuss the broader organizational returns (e.g., morale, productivity, and culture) the company may expect based on implementing your recommendations.

Length: Approximately 1–2 pages, double-spaced

Format: Narrative

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Provide a reference list in APA format for every cited source in your report. Your sources should be either academic or business sources. You should include at least three sources.

Length: Approximately 1 page

Format: APA reference list

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Client Time Log

The number of meetings depends on your problem or business need. In some cases, three meetings are sufficient, but more meetings might be necessary.

Please determine the client’s preferred method to communicate. Given scheduling issues, a combination of methods is best, such as face-to-face, teleconference, and webinars.

Here’s a chart to keep track of these meetings:

Table X (use table numbers according to the order it appears in the paper)

Client Time Log including Meetings, Dates, Durations, Locations, Summaries, and Action Items

Length: As required

Format: Chart

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The purpose of this outline is to facilitate organization of Task 4.

Some points to consider:

(1) When submitting the template, please remove the instructions. Your final document should contain only the headings and the content you added.

(2) A significant part of this work is narrative. Thus, please avoid bulleted lists. (One exception is when charts are most appropriate.)

(3) Use Times Roman 12 pt. font.

(4) Per APA style, written narrative should be double-spaced.

(5) Write in an objective manner. You are a professional consultant, and the requirement is to provide a viable solution to the client.

(6) Make sure to use sources, and cite them per APA Style.

(7) Your Task 4 work is contained within this document. If you have other items that add value to this assessment, please include them as appendices.

(8) Page-length approximations are recommendations, but there is no specific page length requirement.

(9) When using a source, paraphrase instead of quote (citing appropriately as you go). Please note that no more than 30% of submitted work should come from direct quotes or close paraphrase. The goal here is to synthesize material and write in your own words.

(10) Only include sources in the reference list that were cited within the document, per APA Style rules.

(11) For tips on using APA style, please refer to the APA Handout web link included in the General Instructions section.

(12) After making changes, please update the table of contents to mirror correct page numbers.