Renfrey Memorial
Hospital Outline
Renfrey Memorial
Hospital (RMH) is a 200 bed regional hospital located in the Midwest. It has
been in existence for 32 years and was named after a prominent philanthropist
in the area, Mr. Gilbert H. Renfrey, who made many financial contributions to
projects in and around the community where Renfrey Memorial Hospital is
located. The hospital maintains the only 24 hour emergency department in the
area, as well as an “extended hours” urgent care clinic. The hospital
is encountering a problem with nursing staff retention. Sixty-eight percent of
the nursing staff is over the age of 45, and facing retirement. The hospital
commissioned a survey that revealed many of the nursing staff finds the work
too physically demanding and many are feeling physically exhausted and report
emotional burn out as well. Several of the survey respondents report they are
stressed to the breaking point caring for aging parents in addition to working
at Renfrey. In the past two years, the hospital has seen an exodus of nurses.
The hospital has been forced to use temporary pool nurses from an agency. This
has driven up personnel costs and also resulted in decreased rankings on
patient satisfaction surveys. In addition, the nursing shortage is making it difficult
to recruit replacement nurses for the staff who plans on retiring within the
next couple of years. Renfrey Memorial Hospital faces significant staffing
challenges ahead as it grapples with these issues and the hospital board is
very concerned. They know there must be some changes made in order to prevent a
major financial and human resources crisis in the future.
1. Write a proposal
for the Renfrey Memorial Hospital Board of Directors. In your proposal, you
will:
a) Include an
executive summary
b) Identify solutions
implemented at five other hospitals in the US that were dealing with these same
issues (benchmarking).
c) Based on your
research, identify two solutions that are the most viable for Renfrey Memorial
Hospital to implement within the next two years.
d) Present an analysis
of the two solutions that you have selected in terms of at least 5 stakeholder
groups involved (e.g. patients, hospital administration, accounting, H.R.,
marketing, third-party payers, etc.) Who is impacted? What change processes may
be required? What fiscal impact would occur?
e) Make a
recommendation with detailed justification and research support, on the single
solution that you feel is best for RMH. Explain why you feel it is the best and
most viable solution given the financial impact, HR issues, interpersonal
dynamics of hospital personnel, cultural shift, and change management.
