Shouldice hospital case study

1. Case Study
Shouldice Hospital Limited
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Prepred by :: Rajesh Srivastava

2. Organization : Shouldice Hospital Limited (Abridged)
Establishment : 1945
Founder : Dr. Earle Shouldice
Location : 7750 Bayview Avenue, Thornhill Ontario, Canada
Speciality : Abdominal wall hernia repaire
Hospital Capacity : 7000+ hernia operations per year
Introduction :
Source :http://www.shouldice.com
※ Tel: 905-889-1125 ※Fax: 905-889-4216 ※Toll Free : 1-800-291-7750 ※U.S. and International : 1-855-328-3423
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3.  70+ years of experience in external abdominal wall hernias
 99.5% lifetime success rate for primary inguinal hernias sets the gold standard
for medical professionals around the world.
 7000+ hernias successfully repairing every year
 Lowest rate of infection, complications and recurrence in the world
 No Referral Needed / No Appointment Required
 Online medical assessment for patients
 All medical assessments free of charge.
Key Selling Points :
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4. Hospital Timing :
Monday to Friday
Walk-in Clinic, No appointment necessary
Timings - 9:30am to 3:30 pm
Satuday
Clinic Closed
Sunday
Surgical Admissions Only
No Referral Needed / No Appointment Required
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5. Problem Statement : 1
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 Misuse of Shouldice Name
• Others can copy the name
• The technique could be misapplied by others or misinformed the patients
• The whole system / technique could be blamed by patient
 Solution
• Shouldice should look for patents - brand / logo / technique
• Buy / block imitating domains (http://www.shouldice.com)
• Develop an “app” to increase reach and convenience
 engage all the stakeholders and build relevance - new patients, existing patients,
doctors, vendors, management, etc
 live chat, live assistance, FAQs, Health tips, Do / Don't (customer education)

6. Problem Statement : 2
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 Fear About Expansion
• Adding additional capacity to meet the unmet demand may impact the existing workforce
and lower the quality
• Failing to meet the unmet demand may invite competition which may result loosing market
share and may end up with excess capacity
Available Options :
Operating on Saturday &
Sunday
Expansion of existing
facility
Expanding to Other
markets
Pros :
- No investment required
- Maintain quality
Con :
- Strong opposition by Sr.
Doctors
- Violates the contract
Shouldice has with surgeons
Pros :
- Ease of control
- Maintain quality
- Moderate investments
- retain culture & working
environment
Con :
- Increase workload on
support function – Kitchen,
accounting, laundry,
housekeeping
- Disruption during
construction
Pros :
- increased business
- counter competition
- increased market reach
Con :
- Maintain quality, retain
culture & work environment
- Significantly high
investment
- short of trained doctors

7. Problem Statement : 2 (Solution)
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 Shouldice should keep the core competency & should not to diversify in other specialties
as it is a specialised category
 Shouldice should take this in step-wise manner
Phase 1 :
• Shouldice should expand the existing hospital
 with an investment of perhaps $4 million in new space, Shouldice could expand number of
beds by 50%, and schedule the operating rooms more heavily
 Work on capacity & succession planning (Dr. Degani in his early 60s, who is running the
show)
 Improve systems / processes / policies
Phase 2 :
• When the hospital reaches full capacity, start operations on Saturday & Sunday
 Improve company policies involving Sr. leadership team
 Develop a team of Doctors under guidance of Dr. Dengani
 Start operations on Saturday & Sunday and increase further capacity by 20%.
Phase 3 :
• Expand to other markets
 based on patient past history (potential) / location connect / patient comfort & convenience
 Based on date available projections / business case can be developed

8. Problem Statement : 3
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 What should be marketing approach
• insufficient infrastructure, due to increase in demand Hospital may not deliver their 100%
• 1% of total patients are medical doctors, which is a significantly high percentage
 Solution : approach should be on Building Brand
• Shouldice should look for internal & external marketing both, once the internal
stakeholders are happy they can make significant improvement in business
• Should take CSR approach, focus should be to educate masses and build
awareness and favorable opinion for their brand - do / don't, health tips, etc
• Use existing customer testimonial - customer talks, etc

9. 9
• Assumptions have been made based on the information given in the case
study
• It is assumed that they are operating at the “best operating level” because
the way the case is presented seems the hospital is running efficiently and
patients are pleased with the treatment
Disclaimer :
Open for your feedback

10. 10
Thank you