Step-By-Step Guide
How to Familiarize Yourself with the Project
Your supervisor, Abigail Vincent, has asked you to prepare questions for the kick-off meeting with key stakeholders from Woodland Ridge Hospital, to help you gather the information you will need to help you conduct a rigorous financial analysis of the four proposed capital investments. She would like you to carefully review each of the four proposals and brainstorm questions you would like answered during the kick off meeting.
The following step-by-step will help you complete you work.
Get Organized
- Meet with your team. If you are unsure about your team assignment, contact your mentor.
- To help organize your project, it may be helpful to select a member of the team to serve as team leader. The team leader will help establish deadlines and coordinate the exchange of information during the project. Your team may also decide to rotate team leaders during different tasks in the project. Feel free to review the Teamwork Resources in the General Skills Resources section, for more tips of effective teamwork.
- Review Ms. Vincent’s email and make sure you understand what you are being asked to do. Contact your mentor if you have any questions about this task.
- Download the email attachments. Be sure you have each of the following:
- CyberKnife Proposal
- Alzheimer’s Special Care Unit Proposal
- Dialysis Center Proposal
- Remodel Proposal
Review the Proposals and Generate Questions
- Review each project proposal. As you read, make note of any questions you have about the proposals.
- As you work on the proposals, it may be helpful to review the resources available on the Resources tab. These resources will help you understand key concepts introduced in the proposals. Keep in mind that you may not understand everything in the proposals now. They will be used throughout the course and some concepts will be dealt with in more detail later.
- Working with your team, develop questions you would like to have answered in the kick-off meeting to help you make an informed recommendation about which investment would be best for the hospital. Ms. Vincent’s email contained several key pieces of information that will help you as you come up with your questions.
- First she told you about the major goals the client has for their hospital. What is important to the hospital will be help guide how you evaluate the results of your analysis. As a consultant what is important to your client must be important to you. What questions do you have questions about the client’s goals?
- Ms. Vincent has provided you a link to an article describing the analysis you will complete. Understanding the major stages of analysis you will be asked to conduct on each proposal will help you think about the kinds of information you will need during this project. What kind of information, for example, will you need in order to conduct a financial analysis of each proposal?
- Review the proposals provided, considering the following:
- Ms. Vincent counseled you to work backwards. In other words, think about your final deliverable and what information it needs to contain. Ultimately, you will recommend one capital investment project and provide justification as to why that project is the best choice. Even though you don’t know which project you are recommending yet, you can think generally about the kind of argument you are being asked to make. What are the elements of a strong argument? What information will you need to make your decision?
- Remember that key stakeholders, people like the CEO, key doctors and administrators within the organization will represent your client at the kick-off meeting. Think about the kind of information those people could give you that might be helpful. What kind of information would Woodland Ridge employees know about their hospital that no one else could tell you?
- Finalize the list of questions you will submit. Review the list of questions you created by brainstorming. Edit and reword them as necessary. Create one list that represents the work of all team members.
- Submit your work. Using the instructions on the Submit your Work tab of this task, submit your work to your mentor.
Resources
FTE Codes
This link helps you understand the idea of FTE by giving you a table showing the breakdown of how many hours different FTEs work.
RN vs. LPN
This link offers information on the differences between RNs and LPNs.
CyberKnife Resources
CyberKnife Product Fact Sheet
This resource gives an overview of the CyberKnife system.
Cancer Statistics and Treatment Overview
This document compares traditional cancer treatments and radiosurgical treatments.
CyberKnife and Prostate Cancer
This article discusses the impact CyberKnife is having on the treatment of Prostate cancer. Experts expect to see this model of success in the treatment of other cancers. As doctors see evidence that CyberKnife procedures has similar or even better outcomes to more traditional treatments, they expect CyberKnife to become the standard for treating cancers.
Alzheimer’s Unit Resources
End-Stage Alzheimer’s Symptoms
This link provides information on the symptoms experienced by End Stage Alzheimer’s patients.
Alzheimer’s Overview – Mayo Clinic
This link provides a complete overview of Alzheimer’s Disease, including signs and symptoms, causes and risk factors.
What is a geriatrician?
This link describes geriatricians and the work they do with elderly patients.
Dialysis Resources
Dialysis Overview
This link offers information on why patients need dialysis, what the procedure is and how it works.
Hemodialysis Machine
This link shows a picture of a hemodialysis machine.
What is a nephrologist?
This link describes nephrologists and their specialization in the kidney.
Remodel Resources
Emergency Department Overview
This link gives an overview of emergency departments and the way they treat patients.
Trauma Centers
This link provides more information about the different trauma levels assigned to a hospital’s emergency department.
Emergency Room Outsourcing
This article shows an example of a NY hospital that has outsourced care in their emergency room.
Joint Commission FAQ
This FAQ is introduces the Joint Commission, the accrediting body of hospitals. It explains what the organization does and why it is important for hospitals to be accredited.
Electronic Medical Records Overview
This resource offers and overview of electonic medical records.
Transition to Electronic Medical Records
This article offers a look at a hospital who has successfully implemented electronic medical records.
Ask The Experts
How do hosptials make money?
How would an investment, like the ones in this rotation, benefit a hosptial?
What is the difference between a for-profit and a not-for profit hosptial?
Not-for-profit hospitals return all monetary gains to the operations of the organization. For-profit hospitals share profits with the owners or shareholders of the organization. The differences may be discerned by a review of the organization’s mission, vision and value statements. These statements address the motivating roots of the parties and give an idea on how practices and operations might differ. For example, an NFP hospital might prioritize access for all patients to needed care while a FP is more likely to emphasize excellence of services.
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