Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Tracking Project

Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Tracking Project

Strategic and Financial Information Collected During Hospital Site Visits

Strategic Information to be Collected on Behalf of UNC at the Hospital Level

Desired Respondent(s): The hospital CEO.

Major Goals: The major goals of the hospital strategy study are to identify:

* If the organization has a formal strategic plan.

* The hospital's major problems and strategic initiatives. Specifically, in regard to their strategic initiatives we are interested in:

o What they were

o If they are concentrated in one area or if they are spread across the main categories of the Balanced Scorecard: financial, stakeholder, business processes, and infrastructure and innovation

o If they tend to concentrate on one or more of the following areas: finance, clinical services, staffing, external relations or management practices

o Estimates of the size ($) of the impact during the first year of implementation and forecasted over five years.

Some of the information we need will have been collected on the pre-sitevisit survey. Section B-2 identifies whether or not they have a strategic plan, and if so, its composition. Section B-1 of the pre-sitevisit survey asks the CAHs to identify their major strengths and problem areas as well as where major initiatives are taking place. Hopefully this later information will be useful in answering the questions on the site survey instrument.

Our primary area of interest in the site survey is to identify the hospital's major problems and strategic initiatives, and related information. We used the term "major" instead of strategic because in our pretests we found too much confusion over the term "strategic" and found that "major" was a reasonable substitute. In regard to their strategic initiatives we are interested in:

* What they were

* If they are concentrated in one area or if they are spread across the main categories of the Balanced Scorecard: financial, stakeholder, business processes, and infrastructure and innovation

* If they tend to concentrate on one or more of the following areas: finance, clinical services, staffing, external relations or management practices

* Estimates of the size ($) of the impact during the first year of implementation and forecasted over five years. [Part III, 2].

Related information, which is of primary interest to other centers, will help us understand the context of their strategic efforts. These questions are:

* What were the major factors that made conversion to CAH seem like one of the more logical strategies for the hospital [II.1.]

* What were the strategic issues which had to be faced and addressed before deciding to convert to a CAH? [II. 2]

* What internal changes have occurred as a result of conversion? [III. 1]

* What external dynamics have changed as a result of participation in the Flex Program? [III 3]

* How have the CAH's accomplishments in developing affiliation and network relationships created opportunities that may not have otherwise been available without them?) [III.4]

Financial