Pate Memorial Hospital

Overview and Introduction:

The Pate Memorial Hospital is a renowned nonprofit general hospital. It is one of the self-supporting and independent hospitals with around 600 beds. There are various facilities which are provided to the patients in the hospital. There are 24 hour ambulatory healthcare facilities available at the hospital. Along with this, the hospital has the highest occupancy rate among all the six major hospitals that are located in the western part of the city.

Due to shifts in demographics, the financial health of the PMH is getting disturbed. The older residents, who were living inside the city have become more and more dependent on the hospital.

The hospital is engaged in providing the utmost services for 260 days per year from 8 am to 5pm.

Following are the services that are offered by the hospital to its patients;

Emergency care.

Preventative care.

X-rays services.

Lab tests.

Employer services.

Primary care treatment.

Chronic health problems.

Defensive care.

The hospital is also engaged in providing the services to its employees. If the employees get injured, compensation is provided to them while providing them complete healthcare. The common illnesses are also addressed by providing utmost care and treatment (Pate-Memorial-Hospital, 2012).

Define the problem:

The problem that is raised is that whether the services should be extended in the ambulatory healthcare facility or not?

It is important to also identify and determine the position of the Pate Memorial Hospital. Its position could be identified by evaluating the services and financial performance in order to determine how and where they can be improved.

There are also secondary problems or opportunities that must be addressed. Following are few of them;

The patients were asking about more advanced services.

What could be the ways to accommodate the supplementary services?

To find ways to market the Pate Memorial Hospital.

Building a positive image and reputation in the society or community.

There are about 50% female patients are asking for gynecology services.

The patients request service extended hours.

There are around 50% of patients who tend to visit for addressing just common and personal illness.

Enumerate the decision factor:

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:

Research and Development: The services that are offered by the hospital to its patients are very quick. The less waiting time of the services can help improve the hospital’s image in the community. The patients should be valued in order to satisfy them.

Finance: The hospital is debt free and it has the highest rate in occupancy.

Offerings: There are six types of core services that the hospital delivers to its patients.

Fast care services: the services are very fast and very convenient for the patients.

Inexpensive treatment: The treatment is quite inexpensive due to which there are more number of patients.

Weaknesses:

Poor management: The management is weak, there is no proper planning and management of the staff.

Marketing: There is no marketing activity in order to strengthen the position and to build the reputation of the hospital in the community.

Opportunities:

Economic: The consumer price index could be increased due to the expenditure of the healthcare services.

Employees: 11,663 office workers.

Technology: Technological advancement in various medical equipment may create intense competition and market advantage.

Threats:

Competitor: Just 5 blocks north is the competitor of Pate Memorial Hospital.

Market/Industry structure: The market is saturated and has strong competitors like Emercenter.

Consider relevant information:

The hospital must focus on reducing the waiting time and the services must be expanded in order to become prominent in the competitive market. The cost must be reduced in order to further expand the operations of the hospital. The reduction in cost must be parallel to the maintained and stable prices. From 2010 to 2020, 28% population of the United States will turn 65 due to which, it is possible that the number of patients will be increased. The hospital may introduce its own official website because it is important to utilize the growing trend of internet to make it easier for patients to access any specific information and knowledge about the services and treatments.

Identify the best alternatives:

It is recommended that the services that the hospital provides to its patients must be expanded in order to attain the market share. Not only the services, but the operating hours must be extended in order to better serve the patients. There is a need to hire additional expertise and physicians so that the patients would be given sufficient time and be treated in professional way as overall load would become lower on the doctors. If the hospital hires a physician, there could be an additional opportunity to give appointments to more patients who would be treated besides the work days.

The hospital should be promoted through social media because social media is the most appropriate technique for the purpose of promoting and adverting these kinds of services. The message can be delivered to countless people of the community at the same time. Gynecologists should be hired in order to address the needs of female patients. If a gynecologist hired in the hospital, the numbers of female patients would increase. There are alternatives that must be chosen in order to become successful and to compete with the competitors. The decision must be taken based on financial forecasting of each alternatives.

Develop a plan for implementing the chosen alternative:

After analyzing if the hospital should hire a gynecologist or a physician or hire both, net profit or loss may help in deciding which alternative is suitable to adopt. It is recommended to hire a gynecologist in order to meet the needs of the females of the community because they contribute a majority to the patient base of the hospital. Preventive healthcare facilities should be provided to the patients. In downtown, basic information on treatments should be provided in the weekly newspaper. The utmost benefits and services should be given under the supervision of expertise in order to avoid any unfortunate situation and to avoid the loss of patients. Mobile clinic services should be given in the downtown zone once a month from 7am to 7pm. Furthermore, blood donation activities should be conducted every 3 months in order to ease the blood supply demands. The bypass strategy should be adopted, and the referral program should be established. The waiting time should be lowered in order to provide convenience to the patients. Patient feedback of the services should be received in order to better assist them in the future. Attract new patients rather than regular patients because it is important to consider the market development strategy.

Evaluate the decision and the decision process:

The Pate Memorial Hospital is a nonprofit and independent hospital. The mission statement of the hospital is to become a self-supporting and self-financing hospital in order to become competent. The services must be expanded by 5% by the end of 2018. The ultimate purpose of the hospital to provide high quality services to the patients. It is also intended to gain 25% profit and increase the net profit margin to 5% in the forthcoming years. The expansion of services is a wise decision that must be taken after analyzing the financial aspects.