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Shouldice Hospital Case Analysis

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Submitted By jkristac
Words 1451
Pages 6
Introduction
Shouldice is a private hospital located in Toronto, and was founded by Dr. Earle Shouldice in July 1945. The hospital started out as a six-room nursing home in downtown Toronto. As demand increased for hernia operations, Dr. Shouldice expanded the facilities to a capacity of 36-beds, which turned into an 89-bed facility after the addition of a large wing. Dr. Shouldice is a famous doctor known for his private method of hernia surgery. Unlike normal methods, his way allowed the patient to be up and about right after surgery, and move freely about by the end of the day. When patient numbers increased, Dr. Shouldice decided to exploit this by opening up his own hospital. His hospital, Shouldice Hospital, specialized in external hernia cases and proved to be a big success. Dr. Shouldice died in 1965, but his hospital continued to grow, and by the end of 1982, his hospital had 6,850 operations per year.

Issue Statement
The Shouldice Hospital is a successful and admired organization. However, due to its unique surgery method, and without the assistance of mass advertisement, they are operating close to 100% capacity. Thus, Shouldice fears not being able to meet future demand. Moreover, “competing” hospitals and surgeons utilize and perform the Shouldice method (and advertise as such), although they often perform the method incorrectly, ultimately giving the Shouldice Hospital a bad reputation. Shouldice’s critical concerns are meeting future demand, dealing with outside abuse of the method, which is being utilized by competing hospitals and surgeons, and potentially expanding their “business” while continuing to maintain the Shouldice Hospital quality.

Analysis
To increase their output and maintain their quality, Shouldice Hospital would likely need to increase their presence in the medical field. This would involve large capital

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