Shouldice Hospital Case Study Report

Name: Hoang Vu Duong

Student ID: 17110016

MBA

SHOULDICE HOSPITAL LIMITED CASE STUDY

Question 1:

Shouldice Hospital Limited is an Hernia operations provider. In 1979, there was about 600000 operations were performed in the US only, even the Hospital is located in Canada. It means that the reputation of the hospital has acrossed the boundary of nation. Besides, until early 1980s, the hospital had organized data of about 140,000 alumni came from many countries, which were their former clients. This seemed to be a large market in the niche hernia operations service.

Another success of the hospital is that they effectively utilize the word-of-mouth, or viral advertising, which was perform entirely by their customers. It shows that their clients had experienced a high-quality service with suitable prices, and of course they were totally satisfied with this.

Question 2:

In my opinion, the first reason of its success is that the reputation of Dr. Shouldice before he opened his own hospital. “He had begun to develop a surgical technique for repairing hernias that was superior for others, and offered his services for army inductees who otherwise would not qualify for service.” Then this technique had been spreaded sufficiently.

The second reason is that the hospital has its own process and method which is convenient and comfortable for its patients. Beside coming to hospital or clinic to take the examination, Shouldice hospital has created a Medical Information questionnaire for customers to self-examined their health and send it back to the hospital for determining the specific problems, in order to get an operating appointment. This could be more convenient for clients who far from the hospital.

Moreover, patients in the hospital had experienced good and comfortable services, from preparation day of surgery, till the postoperations. They were served with facilities and activities which encourage them to interact with each other and do exercises regularly. Experienced doctors and nurses in the hospital are carefully recruited and well-trained in order to do operations and serve patients.

Last but not least, the administrative board is one of the important reasons, who have tried to manage the activities of the hospital as well as maintain the satisfaction and sustainability of staffs as well as the business.

Question 3:

As mentioned in the case, there are some actions Dr. Shouldice was considering to expand the capacity of the hospital. For me if I were in this position, I would try to add another floor of rooms to the hospital in order to increase the number of beds by 50%, as well as rise the number of operations. This would be easier for me to control and maintain the quality of services compare to other alternatives. Besides, it will retain the organizational culture and also the environment for both staffs and customers, which is highly concerned in an enterprise, without a large number of investment. Although it had some disadvantages related to the workload, it would also be the chance for me to recruit more professional staffs as well as increase the duties, salaries and rewards for current personnel.