Running head: Business Plan

Business Plan
Healthcare Policy and Ethics
Christina L. Vidrich
University of St. Mary

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In order to achieve the hospital commitment to provide, quality, safe care to the
community we serve, the surgical services department is asking for assistance in carrying out our
mission and vision for improved care by developing a multidisciplinary spine center of
excellence. Our surgical department is convinced that improved implementation would improve
spine service delivery with exceptional quality and care. This center of excellence would
provide our facility a competitive advantage in a highly competitive service (Cohn & Schwartz,
2001).
The target is to identify the appropriate patient, consumer and the market needs of
patients. The value provided is to provide newly innovated services, collaboration and the
continual strive for excellence. The method of delivering value is through improved
implementation in a multidisciplinary spine center. The activity is specialized, an enhancement
of an existing service, and reimbursed by current plans in the area; 51% of patients treated in the
past year had Medicare, 24% managed care, and 26% had commercial / private insurance(Cohn
& Schwartz, 2001).
From data collected over the last two years that the 400 patients per year that our group
treated represented 90% of the volume at the hospital. Of the patients that were treated over the
past 2 years in the 5-town catchment area that the hospital served, our facility would have the
potential to double their volume if patients and referring physicians agreed with the value
proposal. Demographics favor growth of this market, with the proportion of patients 65 and older
forecast to double over the next 30 years. The physicians share of the hospital market had been
stable at 90% for several years (Cohn & Schwartz, 2001).

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Our facilities strategy allied well with the recent report of the Institute of Medicine to
provide care that was safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable
(Committee, 2001). Negotiations were underway with national and regional insurers that would
determine the pricing of services to patients with spine problems. Using comparable figures from
a recently established spine center of excellence the hospital projected annual costs of
$1,220,000, of which $630,000 supplies, and $440,000 new equipment expenses. The primary
approaches to marketing would be to referring physicians, with the convenience of our service
,expedite care of patients ,transparency ,measures of quality outcomes and improvement of
health outcomes(Cohn & Schwartz, 2001).
The surgical services management team has been allocated strategic capital through the
system for construction costs, furniture, equipment, and supplies. Once negotiations with payers
concluded, the hospital would prepare cash-flow forecasts, three-year projections, and
contingency analyses, and project risks (Cohn & Schwartz, 2001).
The hospital has agreed to renovate space for the center; benchmarks for measuring
performance included time from referral to appointment for assessment until completion of
surgical procedure. The hospital will ensure the recovery room nurse to work together with
management to create a proactive policy that will identify and solve potential barriers as well as
conduct telephone surveys with patients. The data would be collected from the patient
perception of quality care. An engineering assessment showed that the center could be
constructed for less than$2,000,000, hindering the need for a certificate of need from the state
(Cohn & Schwartz, 2001).

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Surgical services and administrators anticipated a 6-month period until the facility was
remodeled and ready for patients. They developed a timeline that included construction, purchase
of equipment and supplies, staff training and marketing. Their plan included a list of problems
that might occur and ways to remedy them. They anticipate their local competitors reaction and
data-driven ways that they would be able to document that they were providing superior care. A
medical advisory board would provide governance and collaborate with administration (Cohn &
Schwartz, 2001).

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References:
Cohn, K. H., & Schwartz, R. W. (2001, November 5). Business Plan Writing for Physicians.
.Retrieved June 15, 2014, from
http://healthcarecollaboration.com/docs/CohnBusinessPlan3_31_02.pdf
Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health
System for the 21st Century. Institute of Medicine, Washington DC: National Academy
Press, 2001, ISBN: 0-309-07280-8.