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.·
Title page and Reference page is required, in APA style
format.
Utilize a minimum of 5 references,·
Fully answer all questions above and follow proper APA
guidelines.·
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 the due date so you can correct if your rate is higher than
this.·
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,
the physician-focused strategy would give them a market lead–the plan was to
attract more surgeons–and increase OR volumes. The 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?”
