Akron’s children Hospital (Case Study)

Akron Children’s Hospital started as a day care nursery provider in 1890 and became one of the largest pediatric healthcare system in the united state. Akron Children’s Hospital is located in a friendly community of Akron, Ohio. With more than 3000 pediatric specialists Akron Children’s Hospital offers over 30 practice areas of medicine and surgery specialized for children which help the hospital draw over half a million patients a year not only from the United states, but also from all over the world(akronchildrens. org).

Akron Children’s Hospital mission is to provide medical treatments to infants, children, adolescents, as well as burn victims of all ages. The hospital also provide basic and clinical research and provide multi-level professional education students of medicine, nursing, as well as Akron residents and various allied health professions. Moreover, the hospital is continuing to provide education to encourage and to make it easy on the process of lifelong learning for physicians and other children’s care providers in the health care industry.

Akron Children’s Hospital commitment is to maintain the maximum quality of care for children by using the latest modern technology and equipment available. Akron is committed to promote integrity, emphasize the dignity, family member and fellow employee to follow the topmost standards of ethical conduct. The hospital is committed to maintain and press forward the hospital’s leadership role to successfully work pleasantly with other health care networks providers, community organizations, businesses as well as government to maintain a proficient professional allied and lastly operation.

According to Cooper & Schindler” the basic dilemma and starting trying to develop other question by breaking down the original question is the right way to approach the research process”( Cooper & Schindler,2008). The management-research question hierarchy for Akron Children’s Hospital is that the hospital faces is how to raise the bed-occupancy rate and what can the hospital do to gain more business than its competitors. Another dilemma in Akron’s case the management is that Akron Children’s hospital distinguishing itself from many of their competitors.

The research question for Akron Children’s hospital was about expending their service beyond Summit County to other different counties such as Cuyahoga County, Portage County, Mahoning County, and Medina County, which will increase the number of the patient and bring more profit. Some of the investigative questions for Akron Children’s hospital were as follow: How do children’s parent decides which hospital to take their children to, when their children need acute care? Is their decision driven simply by emotion? Is the financing a determine factor?

Is the quality of service a factor on their decision? (Cooper & Schindler, 2008). During the research process Marcus Tomas LLC team had to observed physicians, parents, and child patients during testing, diagnosis, and treatment phases, they were also observing while kids were during checkups, admitted to the ER, undergoing surgery as well as prepping for surgery. They pay great detail to the interactions of patients and physicians, nurses and other staff members; they pay attention, physical and emotional reactions and heart-wrenching conversations (Copper, Schindler, 2008, cases, p. 2).

The Advantages of it all is that researcher s can see a step- by-step first-hand the experiences between parents, children and hospital staff in the hospital. Furthermore, Researchers can immediately record their observances and findings. The recordings of audio or video were very good solid evidence therefore there weren’t not a lot of room for error in this method. Researchers made sure that all staff of the hospital was fully invested into the well-being of their child patients. The researchers were able to see how technology, highly energetic staff, highly knowledgeable staff and full compassion for the children work in collaboration.

They saw a very strong desire by the entire hospital for the children recover and be the best they can possibly be once leaving the hospital. Some of the disadvantages are that researchers did not gain any knowledge of past experiences if all they do is watching the present. Researchers cannot really gain opinions by this method. Equipment and staffing can be extremely expensive. Some test subjects may act different or be more anxious if they know someone is watching and/or recording interactions.

Conclusively Akron Children’s Hospital management and executives have come to conclusion and realized that the process of overcome the competitors surfing above competitor’s shadow, also generating an effective marketing plan will require an extensive qualitative research. They made a decision of hiring Marcus Thomas LLC. Overall the research was well executed because in the long run Akron Children’s Hospital was able to gain an increase on the number of patients admitted to the hospital, as the result of a better comprehension based on the patients’ parent point of view about their needs and their perspectives.

References
Cooper, R. D., & Schindler, S. P. (2008). Business Research Methods. (10th Edition) New York: McGray-Hill/Irwin.
Cooper, R. D., & Schindler, S. P. (2008). Business Research Methods – Cases. (10th Edition) New York: McGray-Hill/Irwin.
(N. D). (2010). Corporate info. Akronchildrens.org. Retrieved May 23, 2013 from: https://www.akronchildrens.org/cms/site/14908a4d74b348d5/index.html (N.D). (2010). Akron Children’s Hospital, Ohio /overview. U.S.News & World. Retrieved May 23, 2013 from:http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/akron-children’s-