help please

HSA 3180

Assignment – 25% of Final Grade

Read the Case Study below. Answer the following questions:

 What are some of the planning strategies that Russ might have used that would possibly

have positively affected the outcome of the strategic plan execution?

 Discuss some things Marvelous Marvin could have done differently as CEO in order

avoid the current situation?

 What political factors created bias and clouded judgments in this situation?

 Who’s to blame for the bad outcomes of this strategic plan?

 If you were one of the OR Director’s direct reports/managers, what should your

involvement in the organization’s strategy have been?

Guidelines:

 Assignment should be a minimum of 5 pages, excluding the title page and reference page.

 Utilize a minimum of 5 references, only 1 can be the text book.

 Fully answer all questions above and follow proper APA guidelines.

 Submit your assignment through the Turnitin link located in the “Assignment Dropbox”.

 Assignments that have a Plagiarism Rate from Turnitin of higher than 30% will

automatically receive a 0. I strongly recommend that you submit prior to due date so you

can correct if your rate is higher than this.

 No Assignments will be accepted late, No exceptions!

Last Chance Hospital – Case Study

Last Chance Hospital (LCH) is a 254-bed, community hospital located in a small,

affluent suburb, just outside of San Diego, California. The hospital has historically been well-

received by the local community, which demographically has a higher concentration of older age

groups than most other local areas. The greater San Diego area is densely populated, and over

twenty-five hospitals operate in the larger geographic area. Historically, LCH had always been

financially sound, and had managed to remain independent as their local competitors joined

larger systems. But that was then, and this is now. About a year ago, Last Chance Hospital

undertook a strategic planning process to encompass the next years. At the time, the hospital

was doing okay financially, but was starting to dip into their cash reserves more often than the

Board of Trustees liked; LCH was in need of an ideal strategy to bring them ahead of the market

before things got out of hand.

As the strategic planner for LCH, Russ Newmarket reported indirectly to the CEO,

Marvelous Marvin, but his immediate boss was Courtney Graveyard – and she had a lot on her

plate. LCH did not have a chief nursing officer, and as COO, Graveyard was responsible for all

of the nursing departments as well as surgical services, facilities, and information technology. A

nurse by background, Graveyard spent the majority of her time trying to find different ways to

recruit much-needed nursing staff.

During the development of the strategic plan, Russ called together the usual group of

senior executives, Board members and key physician leaders. He diligently developed the

SWOT using their input and applying their assumptions. During his market research, Russ

became aware of some patient-centric trends emerging across the country, but he was also aware

that LCH had always strategically catered more to physicians due to the notion that physicians

were the ones who ultimately referred patients to the hospital. Through the strategy development

process, it became clear that senior management was stuck on this physician-centric mindset.

Russ, ambitious and eager to make a name for himself, found and presented valid information

that concurred with management’s mindset. At the end of the planning process, Marvelous

Marvin felt confident that their solo, physician-focused strategy would give them a market lead--

the plan was to attract more surgeons--and increase OR volumes. Graveyard was under intense

pressure from Marvelous Marvin to make sure the operating rooms were as efficient as possible

to handle the planned increase in volume as OR efficiency would be a key recruitment issue for

surgeons. The LCH physician recruiter was under the gun as well. The remainder of the

executive staff breathed a collective sigh of relief that their areas were not part of the strategic

initiative. Russ suspected LCH needed more of a strategy than attracting new surgeons, but he

convinced himself that senior management knew best.

After the Board approved the strategic plan, Graveyard immediately met with her OR

Director, and charged him with increasing the efficiency of the ORs. She then turned her focus

back to her first love, nursing. The physician recruiter hit the ground running, developing an

elaborate plan to increase surgeon recruitment. From all appearances, LCH was on a roll.

Over the next several months, the OR Director was able to reduce the OR’s operating

budget by 13%, a result that made Marvelous Marvin very happy. At the same time, Graveyard

made great strides in increasing LCH’s exposure to and status in the nursing community, and

was able to decrease the nursing vacancies by over 6%. In a time of nursing shortages, the

Board was impressed with Graveyard’s results. The physician recruiter was having only

moderate success at recruiting surgeons however, and her targeted volume projections were

noticeably under budget. Marvelous Marvin approved her request to increase her staff, adding

approximately $250,000 to her budget line. Overall patient volumes were steadily decreasing at

what was becoming an alarming rate, and thus the financial picture for LCH was in critical

condition. Marvelous Marvin couldn’t help but wonder aloud, “Why isn’t the LCH strategic

plan working?”