Recommendations to Stand out of the Competition

MMLP3.2Instructions

In LP01.1, LP02.1, and LP03.1 you were asked to prepare milestones for a business plan.  An executive summary, while written last, is the first part of a business plan. This document is what the executives will read to determine if the business plan has merit and may determine whether or not they will read the entire business plan.  The executive summary covers all the key points of the business plan and should be 650-1,000 words. Must use 3 scholarly sources and cite APA.

Here are some helpful sources that discuss what to include in your Executive Summary:

· Chron

· SBA

REFERENCE ONLY: Below is the LP1.1 information

Description of the Business

Wickham Hospital is a rural hospital that provides quality healthcare services to the local community. Our mission is to engage in the promotion of healthier lives by providing quality healthcare services. This is to be executed in a fiscally responsible way that promotes the social, physical, spiritual and psychological wellbeing of the community and patients it serves. Further, the hospital aims at serving all members of the community regardless of their gender, religion, race or age.

Among the services provided by the hospital include outpatient and inpatient services, emergency services, primary care, skilled nursing care, center for rehabilitation medicine, a lung cancer center and surgical services. Our main competitors are some hospitals established within the same community. Among these are Greenview Hospital, Jordan Memorial Hospital and Sloan Hospital. These hospitals offer outpatient and inpatient services as well as other services such as primary stroke services, rehabilitation for pediatric polio patients.

Recommendations to Stand out of the Competition

To stay on top of the competition, Wickham Hospital needs to invest and adapt to the most recent technology to ensure efficient delivery of quality medical services. Further, all healthcare personnel needs to undergo further training through platforms such as seminars and online educational forums. This will promote safe and efficient delivery of services to patients as they promote the quality of life within the community. Besides this, management needs to be keener with the appropriate allocation and deployment of resources to ensure that all areas are sufficiently covered (Enthoven, 2014).

How to Accommodate a Global Business Environment

The hospital currently serves the adjacent community and a few consumers from the outskirts. To broaden into the global business environment, a few strides should be taken. For instance, a website should be created describing the business and services offered. This way, international consumers will seek the business even when they come visiting within the local community. Further, the organization could seek for international investors whose partnership or involvement would attract international healthcare consumers towards the organization (Lunt & Mannion, 2014). The business should make it publicly known that it offers all primary care services to everyone without discrimination and at the same rates as the local community.

Talents to Look for when Hiring Employee

While hiring, the organization will be looking for skilled and highly-qualified candidates who have the ability to deliver the hospitals services diligently and efficiently. At all levels, the hospital will be looking for leaders. Physicians are expected to be productive, vocal, influential and academically prolific and to rise to a leadership position whenever required. All the other healthcare personnel are expected to have skills such as effective communication and listening skills, skilled decision-making as well as problem-solving skills.

Important Technologies to Maintain the Business

One essential technology is the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) as well as ICT to ensure effective storage of medical documents and communication across the hospital networks. In the surgical department, there is need to invest in the most recent and advanced surgical equipment. These include intraoperative MRI and other imaging devices especially for the invasive cardiology procedures (Patil & Patil, 2017). Further, the hospital needs to invest in hybrid operating rooms to facilitate state-of-the-art surgical procedures that will promote the quality of life. Due to the rising cases of hospital acquired infections, Wickham Hospital needs to get infection detecting technologies to control these infections and make the hospital more competitive.

Current Charges for Products and Services

Our charges for various products and services are quite standardized and affordable. For instance, with a pharmaceutical drug called Humira that medicates different conditions such as inflammatory bowel diseases and arthritis which costs $2,669 on average in the USA (Faries, Obenchain, Haro & Leon, 2014). It goes for $2,400 in our hospital. The cost of an MRI is at $1,050 while across the USA it costs $1,119. Inpatients spending a day in the hospital spend $5,150. Across the nation the costs goes for $5,220. Other primary care services such as appendix removal which go for $15,930 in the country, go for $15,500 in our hospital. This is just to sample a few but generally, our costs are below the national costs of most medical products and services.

LP2.1 FOR REFERENCE ONLY:

SWOT Analysis and Promotional Strategies

SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
· We offer a comprehensive practice of core competencies.

· We have strong community ties and patients keep coming back to the hospital.

· We can comfortably treat many types of patients suffering from different problems.

· We support our patients through social infrastructure and attend to the less fortunate.

· Limited funding.

· Limited geographic space.

· Lack of multiple types of payments and low reimbursement rate by Medicare.

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
· We can work on better patient retention.

· We can offer preventive services and disease management as alternative treatment methods.

· We can create value of our services through evidence based outcomes.

· Increasing cost of healthcare.

· Severe regulatory changes and restrictions.

· May be unable to keep up with technology advancements.

The above SWOT analysis for the hospital shows the organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses as well as its external opportunities and threats. The analysis provides a safe yet productive setting in evaluating the position of the hospital as well as its future. This way, one gets actionable takeaways and management can set or adjust their goals realistically and plan how to forge forward (Dictionary, 2016). This analysis allows the administration to review their success and identify then work on those areas that need improvement. For instance, the strengths show that the hospital is competent but there is still need to maintain these competencies to avoid being outdone by the rest of the competitors. Healthcare is evolving and the hospital needs continuous realignment for it to continue thriving with these strengths.

On the other hand, there are weaknesses that need to be handled internally. To begin with, with the issue of limited funding, management needs to come up with a way to raise funds by attracting investors. Further, there are opportunities for the hospital to grow and develop. The administration should take advantage of these to create more business (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman & Bamford, 2017). For instance, besides majoring in treatment of diseases, the hospital can diversify into preventive services and disease management which will attract more consumers. With the external threats, the administration needs to intervene and mitigate them. For instance, with the issue of increasing healthcare cost, there needs to be cost savings measures such as avoiding duplicating services.

Promotional Strategies

There are a number of promotional strategies that the hospital can employ to communicate to the community and wider market of its services and attract more consumers. To begin with, it could use advertising in newspapers, radio stations and television channels to reach to a wide audience. Further, it could use direct mail or newsletters whereby it directly contacts its consumers and other prospective consumers through emails and communicates its services to them (Armstrong, Adam, Denize & Kotler, 2014). Another method is through telemarketing whereby the hospital reaches individual potential consumers through making telephone calls or sending text messages to them. To reach the online audience, the hospital could embrace the website strategy by creating a website and describing its services and offerings. Additionally, the hospital could give specialty promotional items such as t-shirts with the hospital’s labels, thermometers and some toiletries.

Projected Sales

Over the next one year, the hospital is expected to increase sales by 9%. The outpatient volumes are estimated to rise by 11% while the inpatient are expected to grow by 6.3%. Outpatient surgery is expected to rise by 20% while cardiovascular services are projected to swell by 15%. The total gross revenue is expected to get to $30.40 million with the inpatient services accounting for $14.2 million and outpatient $16.2 million. The net patient revenue is expected to be approximately $13.5 million.