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Shouldice Hospital

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© 2007-2008 Richard E Murphy

Even Swaps - Shouldice Hospital

18 November 2007

1. How Successful is Shouldice Hospital?
Shouldice Hospital is a highly successful business that maintains a focused service delivery system due to the success rate of its surgeries, its low employee turnover, its ability to maintain high quality standards, its ability to keep costs low and to remain profitable, and most especially the positive evaluations of its patients.

Its strengths can be attributed to stringent policies of staff

training in the Shouldice surgical method; the preservation of a communal atmosphere amongst both the staff and with the patients; the implementation of efficient and cost-effective facility operations; and high demand for operations.
Its less successful aspects include: an inability to serve a considerable unsatisfied demand, as it is operating at near-full-capacity in its present facility; limited marketing; and an inability to prevent proliferation of its surgical techniques. 2. What Accounts for Shouldice’s Performance?
a. Unique Operating Techniques
Shouldice has vertically integrated nearly all operational functions in an effort to tightly control its distinctive techniques for performing hernia operations, as well as for pre- and post-operative patient care.

The hospital has been

remarkably successful in its ability to provide its patients with a quick, quality, low cost surgery in a comfortable environment, and has enjoyed an operations’ success rate exceeding 99%, compared with an industry average of approximately 92%.

1

© 2007-2008 Richard E Murphy

Even Swaps - Shouldice Hospital

18 November 2007

b. Customer Care
Providing superb customer care is a hallmark of the Shouldice experience.
The surgery is designed to be stronger than standard hernia operations but also allows for a faster

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