The paper should have a short (one paragraph) “Executive
Summary.” It is intended
to be a
summary of your presentation, not a summary of the task assigned.
ASSIGNMENT: You have a job as the
middle-level executive in a 250 bed hospital. The
hospital is technically a
“non-profit” hospital, but it is run as close to a “for profit” goal as
possible. As a result of dislocations to the health care industry in your
state/locality, your
hospital has suffered a 15% loss of trained health care
provider staff across the entire
hospital, including physicians, nurses, and
licensed personnel of all kinds. The hospital has
operated five (5) clinics, in
addition to the regular hospital services: a walk-in orthopedic
clinic; a
referral based radiology department with 2 MRI, CT, and ultrasound facilities;
a labor-and- delivery suite with neonatology; a wound care center with
hyperbaric equipment; and, a locked, in-patient pediatric psychiatric facility.
Your CEO has assigned you the task of
making a report to her, for presentation
to the hospital Board, assessing the risks associated with closing two of these
five clinics. She has asked you to describe the risks of closing each clinic,
as well as the risks of continuing to run the clinics.
You should evaluate the
following: 1. the risks of continuing to offer the services in each clinic with
15% less staff; 2. the benefits of continuing to offer the services of each
clinic; 3. the risks of transferring non-physician personnel from the clinics
to be closed to those that will
remain open, and an assessment of the training
challenges/risks of using inexperienced
staff in the new clinics; 4. the
potential personnel problems and possible solutions resulting
from either (or
both) transferring employees to new assignments or laying off any extra
staff;
and, 5. regulatory and any other problems or risks that may be encountered.
Make a
recommendation which two clinics should be closed, with a brief
explanation why they
should close and the others should remain open. Then,
identify and describe in detail the
consequences you anticipate (such as any
process or implementation issues) and how you should prepare to manage them.
Suggest a basic timeline for the implementation of your
suggestions, taking
into account the risks that you have identified and the steps you
propose to
take.
Finally, provide a VERY brief statement of your assessment of the Cynefin
system in which
this process with be conducted. The Cynefin discussion will be
based on the reading entitled A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making. This short
paragraph is actually outside of the “concept” of a memorandum to the CEO, so
you may separate it from the main memo/paper.
You should prepare a memorandum
that can be understood quickly and clearly. Do NOT worry about the revenue
issues (this is confidential information that you do not have, but which the Board
will know.) However, it would be good to consider any additional costs which
you may identify.
