Assignment Expectations
As the environment is of a real-life project team, you will be assessed as to how well you present your work to your company and peers (writing and presentations).
Feedback and comments from your instructor and peers should be implemented and early recommendations adjusted accordingly.
General Background
1. The Mission Viejo Medical Center (in the city of Mission Viejo, California) comprises two geographically adjacent institutions:
a. Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center: Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center, and
b. Children’s Hospital at Mission (CHM): Children’s Hospital at Mission (CHM) http://www.mission4health.com/affiliations/choc-childrens-at-mission.html
2. The two hospitals serve — within less than a 10-mile radius — the populations of the following nine municipalities: Aliso Viejo, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, and San Juan Capistrano.
3. Retirement Communities:
a. The city of Laguna Woods (http://www.lagunawoodscity.org/), is home to “Leisure World” (http://www.lagunawoodsvillage.com/), a retirement community of over 23,000 senior (55 years and above) residents.
b. The city of Mission Viejo is home to “Casta Del Sol,” a retirement community of more than 3,000 senior (55 years and above) residents.
4. Following the example and success of integrating a special CHOC – children’s hospital within the Mission Viejo Hospital, it is suggested for the purpose of this paper only, that an additional new hospital wing be built, catering to the special needs of the senior population, to be named: “Golden Age Hospital (GAH)”.
5. The “Consulting Team” has been tasked to research and develop a project feasibility plan for the future GAH.
The Project
1. Note: You do not need to be a physician or health care provider to complete this assignment. Address it through management lenses.
2. As independent members of this group, you will each undertake this task and prepare said plan, following the modular guidelines and assignments.
3. Each module will focus on different topics, building on your previous studies and based on the background materials.
4. The assignments for each module will be prepared and presented to the management (your course instructor) as follows:
a. Case – developing and writing a segment of the plan.
b. SLP – preparing a boardroom PowerPoint Presentation (PPT) based on the case paper.
c. Discussion – preparing an executive summary based on the case paper, to be posted on the TD platform. Members of the Team (all students) will comment on their peers’ postings and be able to share information and data for their own plan (see guidelines in the TD platform).
5. The Case Assignments are the crux of the coursework, whereas the SLP and TD are its derivatives. Case papers should be at least 4-5 content pages long.
6. You will prepare and submit the sectional/modular case papers for each module, adding the preceding ones as you go (like chapters in a book); that is, in Module 2 you will combine and submit Case 1 and Case 2, and so on.
7. You will make amends to each case paper per the feedback you will get from your instructor.
8. Finally, at the end of the course, you will need to aggregate all chapters into one comprehensive paper, as follows:
a. Title page – to be submitted in Module 1.
b. Background – to be submitted in Module 1.
c. Market Research and Segmentation – to be submitted in Module 1.
d. Organizational Structures and Functions – to be submitted in Module 2.
e. Finance and Budgeting – to be submitted in Module 3.
f. Quality, Ethical, and IT Controls – to be submitted in Module 4.
g. Conclusions and Recommendations – to be submitted in and for all modules.
Module 1 – Assignment – Market Research and Segmentation
1. The External Environment – Data Gathering
a. Search the Web and gather relevant general information regarding hospitals for seniors and direct data pertaining to the external environment of the proposed GAH
b. The proposed points below are just “starter points” for you to expound upon and add to as you see fit.
c. Common medical conditions of seniors:
i. Overall health status
ii. Unique illnesses
iii. Other
d. Medical institutions for seniors:
i. Types of institutions and clinics serving seniors (their size per population served)
ii. Types of special services provided for seniors and catering to their needs.
iii. Length-of-stay of seniors at various hospitals.
iv. Other
e. Local (Mission Viejo area) City demographics:
i. Can be obtained from but not limited to: http://www.city-data.com/
ii. Input the nine municipalities (one by one) in the search box.
iii. Scroll through the various data sets, and glean the relevant information: Population, Gender, Age, Household income, Race, Other.
iv. Consolidate all nine city data sets into one table, total where appropriate
2. Based on the data gathered and the general picture you have obtained, we will now focus on direct market research and segmentation of the senior community in the Mission Viejo area.
3. In order to do so, you will need to define/address the following points:
a. Who are your target market subjects?
b. Where are they located?
c. What special needs do they require?
d. What special medical/health services do they wish to get?
e. What type of physician specialization would they like to have?
f. Locations: Do they prefer a single medical center (MC) hospital location, or do they prefer a medical center (MC) hospital and a community clinic (CC)?
g. Other.
4. Survey Questionnaire:
a. Complete the following proposed survey table – column A, that you plan to use in order to obtain the preferences and perceptions of the seniors of your target segment, assume n=500. (Click the link to access the GAH Project tables.)
b. Your instructor will comment on your table and fill out column B (the average response score of the 500 subjects) in his feedback to you, on the basis of which you will be able to further develop your project plan.