Capella University HCM FPX5310 MBA-FPX 5310 Decision Making in the Health Care System HCM FPX5310 Elliott Meredith Assessment1 Attempt1/

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Capella UniversityHCM FPX5310 HCM FPX5310 Elliott Meredith Assessment1 Attempt1 Section 1: Organization Background Whitaker Memorial Hospital was a small community facility founded in 1908 in the e... ast end of Newport News, Virginia. The facility was created to meet the needs of the AfricanAmerican community. The hospital existed in a time when segregation was at an all-time high, banning colored physicians from working in white hospitals. African American physicians were “excluded from the nearby white hospitals, therefore, four African-American physicians pooled their resources and rented a four-room wood building to create one of the nearly twenty colored hospitals that populated a Jim Crow nation” (Makamson, 2006). The mission of the hospital was to provide care to the African American community in a time where they were not allowed to seek care from white facilities. “The hospital was the manifestation of the vision of two African American physicians to provide quality medical care to the growing African American population of the city” (Doughtie, 2015). In 1914, the Whitaker Memorial Association was established to serve as a non-profit, community organization to provide governance and financial support to the hospital” (Makamson, 2006). The hospital’s first expansion occurred in 1943 when it received funding from the federal Lanham act, which provided funds to needy community projects. This funding created 58 new beds for Whitaker Memorial hospital. Moreover, in 1956 the hospital reconstructed a state of the art 81 bed facility costing $628,000 from funding received from the federal Hill-Burton funds that were initiated to help improve the nations healthcare system post World War II (Makamson, 2006). The hospital was now facing financial instability due to population changes within the community, management issues and overall healthcare demands. Whitaker Memorial was noRunning head: FEASIBILITY STUDY 3 longer surrounded by a “segregated, racially homogenous, income diverse section of Newport News like it was in 1914. All influential members of both camps now lived outside of this geographical area” (Makamson, 2006). By 1980, Newport News had become the new south and affluent blacks that once lived near Whitaker Memorial now moved away from the east end “into distant integrated, middle class and affluent neighborhoods” (Makamson, 2006). The change in population impacted the hospital tremendously and it now became known as the public hospital that provided lack luster care to its indigent client tell. The facility was now surrounded by low income impoverished neighborhoods, who’s reputation began to decline as well as its financial stability. The hospital’s financial instability continued to grow and by “1984 the hospital’s costs exceeded revenues by $749,000” (Makamson, 2006). In addition, the inability of Whitaker Memorial to compete within the current healthcare environment brought about constant problems for the facility, such as its “daily hospital charge was priced at $381.76 while other facilities were charging $456.95 per day. The hospital faced major allegations suggesting that there were billing improprieties and issues with accounting” (Makamson, 2006). Also, in 1990, the hospital reported that they were $20 million in debt and the “hospital board acting for the Whitaker hospital association filed for bankruptcy under chapter 11 which was granted in 1993” (Makamason, 2006) [Show More]

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