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.
