Akron Children’s Hospital free essay sample

In this paper, I will attempt to study the operation condition about Akron Children’s Hospital. First of all, I will briefly introduce the hospital’s basic information, including the beginning of its operation, its development process, and current situation. Then, we will focus on the Akron Children’s hospital’s current managerial problem. They want to by using the research to help them fix this problem. The research process is conducted by a professional management research company, who was called â€Å"Marcus Thomas LLC†. Their management research process could be separate into five hierarchy, and in every step, Akron hospital has a specific work to do, or they have a particular question needed to be solve. I will detailed explain each of these hierarchy, and what the Akron Children’s hospital will obtain from it. Furthermore, the Akron Children’s hospital decide to expand the research. Marcus Thomas decided to build and conduct a focus group to expand their future research work. The focus group, with considering the method for the survey, analyzed and evaluated many of Akron Childrens hospitals competitors’ and a large number of local people’s situation and opinion. Based on these qualitative and quantitative research, the managers of Akron Childrens Hospital made an effective marketing plan. The Akron hospital obtained a big advantage in its following business running. It could say, with the help of Marcus Thomas LLC’s research work, Akron Childrens Hospital made a successful decision for its future. The Akron Children’s Hospital’s basic informations: To understand the history and current information about Akron Children’s Hospital is useful and necessary, because it will help us to study the hospital’s current managerial problem and following management-research. Therefore, I retrieved some basic information about Akron Children’s Hospital. The hospital in located in northeast Ohio and it was founded in 1890. Its Primary service area is in Northern Ohio and western PA. â€Å"Ranked a Best Childrens Hospital by US News World Report†, based on its self-introduction on their official website (Related from: https://www.  Akronchildrens. org/cms/home/index. html). Akron is not only focus on children’s hospital, but also it is the largest pediatric provider in the local market. At very beginning Akron Children’s Hospital started as a day care nursery. During a century development, Akron has become one of the largest pediatric healthcare system in Northeast Ohio. Until current, Akron Children ’s Hospital has 4,619 of employees, and 1,438of volunteers. The hospital now has two pediatric hospitals, which they are Akron campus and Beeghly campus, and 20 primary care and 67 pediatric specialty locations. In the year 2013, Akron Children’s Hospital handle more than 600,000 patient visits and their patients came from not only native but also from all around the world. All the above information came from Akron Children’s Hospital’s official website. We can easily find that Akron Children’s Hospital has a long history and good development in the last century. The hospital obtained a great achievement in the current years. Management Research Question Hierarchy: In order to make a right decision for the long-term development, Akron Childrens hospital hired Marcus Thomas to study their managerial problem. As a professional management research company, Marcus Thomas clarify the research question by following the process of management research question hierarchy. The hierarchy involves 5 steps: The first step of research hierarchy is used to identify the management dilemma. Unifies Akron childrens hospital actual situation, distinguishing itself from their competitors and increasing the bed-occupancy rate is the primary dilemma of Akron hospital. The second step of management research hierarchy is Management Question. What Akron Childrens Hospital should do is trying to figure out how to differentiate itself from their competitors, or in other words, how to step out of the shadow of its competitors. The third step of research hierarchy is Research Questions. The Akron Childrens Hospital should define the research questions such as whether they expand their service beyond the county, which means it will increase the number of the patient; and whether they can provide the higher technology equipment or higher-quality medically advanced care than their competitors. The forth step of management research hierarchy is Investigative Questions. The Akron Childrens Hospital should research the questions such as â€Å"which hospital do the parents’ prefer to bring their children to, the nearest or the high-quality one? † or â€Å"Is the higher technology equipment and higher-quality hospital do real attract the patients who in the distance? † The last step in management research hierarchy is Measurement Questions. The Akron Childrens Hospital could list many factors that patients are possible care about, such as â€Å"How important you think it is that a hospital has many high-technology equipment, from 1 star to 5 stars. †, â€Å"How important you think it is that a hospital can provide the most medically advanced care, from 1 star to 5 stars. †, or â€Å"How important you think it is that a hospital hold the most and the best medical staffs, from 1 star to 5 stars. † Advantages and Disadvantages for This Research: Obviously, each study has both advantages and disadvantages involved. The advantage is that from observation, analyzing and studying the children and their parents staying in the hospital, the hospital can get many first-hand experiences. It could be audio, video or an interview. These study evidence could be maintained for a long time. But the disadvantage is also obvious, such as the hospital has no previous experiences. And the staffing and equipment maybe expensive. Furthermore, the children and their parents may not act normal, if they knew they are being recorded. This will makes the observation unreliable and waste of time. Akron Children Hospital’s Brand Promise: The brand promise recommendation revealed that all the employees paid high enthusiasm to serve for the children and their parents. The researchers saw many high-technology equipment and highly energetic staff are working for serve for their patients. All they want is do their best to help the children get well and leaving the hospital quickly. What Should Researchers to Record/Look For/Listen For: If I did this research, I will directly giving the children and their parents full attention and listening to them. I want to make sure the researchers directly get that the patients real said, and monitor the interactions between researchers and parents. Of course, I will command my researchers be care for control the atmosphere, the research should not make children uncomfortable. Ethical Issues: About some ethical issues, I think it basically concentrate on two point. First one is the research should not make an uncomfortable atmosphere, the researchers are given an order to make sure the research won’t effect to the patients’ normal life. Especially in the children’s hospital, sometime the quiet environment is very important for patients. The other one is that the result of research should not use outside of the hospital. The researchers and patients could sign a contract to prevent the information leakage. Evaluate focus group’s telephone questionnaire research: The research work also could be down by telephone or questionnaire. From my opinion, I don’t suggest using telephone research, because the sample rate is too low to make sure the research result is accurate. The Akron Children Hospital’s majority customer is children which it is only a small part of local entire population. If the research target is the stochastic local citizen, it is difficult to find a family which they are familiar with local children’s hospital industry. If the research target is patients staying in the hospital, why don’t talk to them face-to-face. Therefore, telephone research is not fit for Akron Hospital. Questionnaire research is much more practical than telephone research. First of all, the questionnaire research could help the hospital obtain the useful information. For example, the questionnaire could ask the interviewee whether they have children, or whether they have ever sent their children to any children’s hospital before. By this way, the researcher could rule out many irrelevant answers. Secondly, questionnaire research could help the hospital get many competitors’ information. For example, the questionnaire could involve the question like this â€Å"which children’s hospital have you ever sent your children to? How is there? † If the interviewee has ever been to their competitors’ hospital, Akron Children’s Hospital can easily obtain many important information. Conclusion: Competition is everywhere, so do children’s hospital industry. Even the century-old shops, if they don’t pay constant attention on the advantages and disadvantages of themselves, they will be kick out of the industry by Their competitors very soon. It is a clever idea that Akron Children Hospital hire Marcus Thomas to research the problem that they have now, and find a way to fix it. From the management research process, the hospital clearly realized what risk they have, and identified what should they do in the future. At the same time, the management research also help the hospital to make successful decisions to win the potential customers, as well as the competitive advantage.