Shouldice Hospital Ltd. Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Hospital’s Success

The Shouldice hospital, serves as the only hospital that provides treatment for abdominal hernia operating approximately 6800 patients annually using its entire capacity. The hospital serves the niche effectively and the success is highly dependent on the unique surgical methods the hospital uses for the treatment of hernia patients. The reasonable prices play a major role in endorsing the positive image of the hospital as patient satisfaction is a key which provides a positive word of mouth for the hospital.

Problems Identification and Causes

The issues that hospital is facing are regarding the capacity of the hospital and the backlog of operations, which will be dealt by expanding its capacity while maintaining the quality of the service delivered. The issue of imitation of the unique abilities of Shouldice is also a concerning factor as many doctors are claiming to use the methods of Shouldice and are not operating successfully which is creating a bad image for Shouldice. The objectives of the hospital is to maintain its leadership in operating hernia and to prepare a new team of doctors and train them in operating hernia. The hospital also wants to deal with its backlog issue while expanding and maintaining the quality of its services and to provide the patients with a better experience.

Alternatives

An extra day in the schedule and increase in the existing capacity will be helpful. The hospital can invest in building an extra floor, which will increase the bed capacity by 50% and will help in accommodating more patients. Adopting an expansion strategy and starting operations to other geographical locations across Canada and introducing diversification in the field and introduce other surgical fields as well.

Utilizing the capacity of operations at its optimum is also an option which can be done by scheduling operations at different time sets, besides the ones scheduled in the day and introducing and implementing different shifts for the doctors. Choose a doctor to lead the team and the doctor must be from the current staff. Create awareness about the services of the hospital and deliver the message of the uniqueness the hospital has, which will protect the hospital’s intellectual property and deals with the piracy.

Recommendation

Expanding the hospital capacity by increasing a floor and adding another day in the schedule and choosing a new leader are the best options for the hospital in terms of cost and time and will help the hospital to leverage on its existing capabilities to serve its patients in a better way and maintaining the quality of service. This plan is not violating any government regulations and will not require any extra cost, although some employees may have some reservations about the increase in the schedule.

Action Plan

The hospital as a first step should conduct programs and meeting to create awareness among the employees about the need of expansion and addition in the schedule. In the next step interviews and screening tests should be conducted in order to select the new leader. The selection should be done after proper scrutinizing of the possible candidates. The hospital management in order to improve efficiency must make its administrative ...............

This is just a sample partial case solution. Please place the order on the website to order your own originally done case solution.

Various proposals set out to extend the hospital. In their estimation, serious consideration should be given to the culture of the organization and the importance of conservation in the system of services. In addition to the capacity and organizational analysis, describes a focused, well-managed medical service that may well point the way to the future of the economy in the area. "Hide
by James L. Heskett Source: HBS Premier Case Collection 18 pages. Publication Date: April 25, 1983. Prod. #: 683068-PDF-ENG