Week 2 ASSIGNMENT: Case 19: The Case for Open Heart Surgery
For this assignment, read Case 19: The Case for Open Heart Surgery at Cabarrus Memorial Hospital
- Why is the hospital considering this additional service?
- Does the hospital and community really need this service? Why or why not?
- What should be the most important characteristics of a hospital in which one would want to have an open heart surgery?
- Is it financially viable for a hospital to offer this service? What costs and revenues would you predict to know the viability? Would any revenues cover the costs of offering this service?
In addition to the above, state any three instances that could go wrong if this service is offered.
Support your responses with examples in a 2-4 page APA formatted Word Document. Include an introduction and conclusion. Cite any sources in APA format.
Sample Answer
Why is the hospital considering this additional service?
There are various reasons why Cabarrus Memorial Hospital is considering having the additional service. One of them is the high demand for open-heart surgery. There is enough demand regarding their service area to perform open-heart surgery as a service. According to the study on population epidemiology, it is evident that there is an inevitably growing need for expanded cardiovascular services, including open-heart surgeries. Also, the study revealed about 31.2 percent increase in population at-risk cardiovascular problems would be experienced in the next ten years in Cabarrus County, where the hospital is located. Therefore, the increase in the number of people at risk of cardiovascular problems in the county is likely to lead to higher rates of open-heart procedures in the hospital. Secondly, the healthcare facility had enough resources required to run the program. The estimated costs of the program would be about $ 2.87 million in the initial year. Also, the hospital is expected to incur about $3.81 million and $ 6.24 million in the second and third years. Regardless of the high costs required, Cabarrus Memorial Hospital is known to have sufficient reserve cash to run the project without borrowing more funds from outside sources. It is projections that the hospital will reach its break-even point rather quickly, probably after year three. Thus, this shows that the program will be profitable to the hospital. Thirdly, Cabarrus Memorial Hospital is likely to experience little competition in the area. Currently, people travel for about 25 to 60 miles to get open heart surgery services in Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem. The long-distance has been a burden for several patients who seek continuity of care as they are forced to travel for over two hours to get the services. As a result, patients in need of the service keep on getting transferred to other hospitals to get the services. Therefore, Cabarrus Memorial Hospital should establish the additional service to allow the people who need the services to get them quickly. Fourthly, the demand for open-heart surgery has increased over the previous ten years in North Carolina. The total number of open-heart surgeries done in this area had increased by about 26% per annum. Besides, statistical forecasts projected continued increases in use rate per 1000 population in the following five years. Catheter catheterization is among the main diagnostic procedures that lead to a recommendation for open-heart surgery. Therefore, this is a crucial indicator for the demand for open-heart surgery in a given area. The volume of cardiac catheterization has increased at an average of 16.2 percent annually in the past nine years in North Carolina. The volume of cardiac catheterization in North Carolina is also expected to grow for the next five years. Since the rate of Cardiac catheterization is a vital indicator of the demand for open-heart surgery, it is evident that more open-heart surgeries will be needed in North Carolina as the volume of Cardiac catheterization increases.
Does the hospital and community really need this service? Why or why not?
Yes. The community really needs this service due to various. One of the critical factors showing that the community requires the services is the increase in the volume of Cardiac catheterization in the community (Sun, et al., 2017). The community has experienced about 16.2 percent increase in the volume of cardiac catheterization over the last five years. Therefore, this indicates that the number of patients in need of open-heart surgeries keeps increasing in the community. Secondly, the community is experiencing an increase in the at-risk population. This is another key factor driving the demand for the service. Based on the projections generated from the previous census, the total number of adults aged 45 to 64 years who were likely to develop conditions such as coronary artery disease was projected to increase by 38.3 percent in the following decade. This is also twice that of the whole population. Carrabus County, where the hospital is located, is among the areas likely to experience more increase in at-risk population in the next ten years. Thirdly, there are few health institutions offering the service in the community. This limits the community members from accessing the service. There are only 16 healthcare organizations providing the service in North Carolina. The hospitals are located in eleven counties. Among the 16 health facilities, there is only one facility is within the Cabarrus hospital service area. Also, those that are near to CMH service area were situated in Charlotte. This shows that patients are forced to travel for long distances to find the service in other locations, which might become tiresome for procedures that might require multiple clinic visits.
What should be the most important characteristics of a hospital in which one would want to have an open heart surgery?
One of the critical characteristics includes accessibility. People would prefer to have open-heart surgery in a hospital near their residential area to ensure easy access to the healthcare institution and reduced transportation costs. Secondly, the healthcare facility needs to have the necessary resources required to offer open-heart surgery. Open heart surgery is an expensive medical procedure that requires a lot of resources. Therefore, there is a need for the healthcare organization to have enough resources to run the program (MacGill, 2018).
