Demand Evaluation
The selected service line for Trinity community hospital will be an orthopedic center, where the evaluation showed that the overall demand for such a service would be the highest in the near future. The given center was selected by primarily evaluating and comparing the expected demand for other types of centers, which are cancer center and a cardiovascular center. In the case of oncology services, there is an estimated growth of new cancer cases of 34%, and for cardiovascular services, the number is 21-25% (Trinity Community Hospital., n.d.a). However, it is stated that: “orthopedic cases are expected to climb from 11,800 to 17,338 (+46%)” (Trinity Community Hospital., n.d.a, p. 2). In other words, the selection was mainly conducted on the basis of the largest demand increase in the next five years. Therefore, it is evident that the new service line should be an orthopedic center because the general capacity increase is mandatory in order for Trinity community hospital to be able to accept and treat the growing number of patients. It is stated that: “with current resources, physicians and hospitals will be unable to meet the growing demand for orthopedic services” (Trinity Community Hospital., n.d.a, p. 2). Thus, it should be noted that launching and opening a new orthopedic service line will greatly boost the hospital’s future ability to serve the marker area or community.
Analysis of Current International Healthcare Trends
It is important to note that the current international orthopedic healthcare trends revolve around the process of minimal invasiveness. One of such trends includes a bendable medical screw, which can be highly useful in conjunction with a continuum manipulator in order to fixate the bone fragments by drilling curved tunnels (Alambeigi et al., 2019). Such a novel approach is necessary to provide clinicians with more levels of freedom in regards to the selection process of a drill entry point (Alambeigi et al., 2019). In other words, bendable medical screws enable more complex operations with less invasive techniques, which ultimately benefit both patients and doctors.
Another international orthopedic healthcare trend, which revolves around a notion of minimal invasive surgery, is the use of orthopedic surgical robots. Robot-assisted surgeries and general orthopedics surgical robots market is expected to grow up to 47% in the near future (“Top 3 trends impacting the global orthopedic surgical robots market through 2021: Technavio,” 2017). In other words, robots can prove to highly useful in the new orthopedic service line due to their advanced precision and full-on automation. Integration of automation in the center will be a plausible solution for the ever-growing demand for orthopedics surgeries at Trinity community hospital. In addition, the integration of such assistive technologies will reduce the general need for medical specialists, which opens up opportunities to focus on existing professionals by improving their satisfaction levels.
Existing Programs
The existing service lines and programs at Trinity community hospital revolve around the recent initiatives by Fred alongside the Five-year Program. In the case of the latter, it is evident that the general plan of the hospital is to focus on four key areas, which are growth and profitability, staff achievement, service excellence, and quality and safety (Briscoe, n.d.). The growth and profitability section sets objectives, such as having 2100 surgical cases, 6500 physical therapy visits, and $2171500 margins (Briscoe, n.d.). Staff achievement-related outcomes are orthopedic staff retention rate higher than 90% and orthopedic nursing staff certification higher than 75% (Briscoe, n.d.). In regards to service excellence, the goals are based on reaching the physician satisfaction larger than 90th percentile with the likelihood of recommending percentile equal to or bigger than 90th. Lastly, the quality and safety segment strives to achieve pre- and post-procedure class attendance to be around 75%, where the CMS orthopedic indicator set higher than 90th percentile (Briscoe, n.d.). In addition, Trinity community hospital wants to build a new 5000-square-foot rehab/physical therapy center for $600000 – 700000 and purchase a second MRI for $3000000 (Briscoe, n.d.). Therefore, these modifications can serve as complimentary components to the new service line.
Moreover, Fred’s proposal can also be utilized as an adjacent element of the new service line and even be incorporated into it if he cooperates with the CEO. Fred claims that he and his team secured office space near Trinity hospital in order to open a branch orthopedic center (Fred, n.d.). Therefore, such a proactiveness can be used to jump-start the orthopedic service line because the only requirement from the CEO is to build and develop an outstanding orthopedic program.
Financial Feasibility
The financial feasibility of the new service line introduction is primarily derived from the CFO’s estimates. They are based on the fact that the projected payer mix, volume increase, operating efficiency improvement, and reimbursement trends will take place (Mike, n.d.). The Five-year Projection of Mike states that the ratio to cost to charges will be equal to 31%, whereas the collections rate will be at 35% (Mike, n.d.). In addition, the gross charges per physical therapy treatment are equal to $275, and gross charges per orthopedic surgical case are equal to $25000 (Mike, n.d.). The demand estimates from the community health needs assessment show that the number of orthopedic cases will increase from 11800 to 17338 (Trinity Community Hospital., n.d.a). In other words, 5538 additional cases will occur in the near future annually, which means that in the fifth year, the gain in revenue will be around $138450000. Such an increase in conjunction with proper operational modifications will make the hospital profitable again since the patient volume will increase due to the opening of a new orthopedic service line.
Marketing
In order to secure referral services, it is important to properly target and market to physicians. The key strategy will revolve around building a certain form of brand image and separate identity from Trinity hospital. It will be useful for non-Trinity-based physicians since in-Trinity ones will be easily accessible due to the CEO’s position and influence. The marketing will attract referrals by posing as a high-tech advanced service line, where automation, robotics, and novel approaches are being integrated. For example, in order to adhere to the current international orthopedic healthcare trends, the center will implement robots, which will assist the medical experts during their surgeries. Therefore, it can be used as proof of the center is on the edge of advancements. In addition, the essential and vital key performance indicators will also be addressed, such as satisfaction. Bendable medical screws can also be used as a point of marketing, where the mere rarity of these improvements can attract physician referrals. Therefore, the appeal and attraction for physician referrals will be based on the mere quality of service provided by the orthopedic centers, which will be unmatched due to an aggressive integration of novel technologies.
References
Alambeigi, F., Bakhtiarinejad, M., Sefati, S., Hegeman, R., Iordachita, I., Khanuja, H., & Armand, M. (2019). On the use of a continuum manipulator and a bendable medical screw for minimally-invasive interventions in orthopedic surgery. IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, 1(1), 14-21. Web.
Briscoe, M. (n.d.). Five-year program plan [PDF document].
Fred. (n.d.). Branch orthopedic office [PDF document].
Karuppiah, K., & Sinha, J. (2018). Robotics in trauma and orthopaedics.Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 100(6_sup), 8-15. Web.
Mike. (n.d.). Five-year financial estimates presentation [PDF document].
Top 3 trends impacting the global orthopedic surgical robots market through 2021: Technavio. (2017). Web.
Trinity Community Hospital. (n.d.a). Community health needs assessment [PDF document].
Trinity Community Hospital. (n.d.b). Trinity community hospital fact sheet [PDF document].
Newmaker, C. (2019). 7 companies transforming orthopedics with robot-assisted surgery.The Robot Report. Web.