The History of Success of Shouldice Hospital Limited

In 1945 in Toronto, Ontario, Dr Shouldice established a specialty hospital for the treatment of hernia with a particular focus on primary hernia. So the market for Shouldice Hospital Limited is the operations of hernia. Starting only with few small rooms, the hospital grew over the years. This kind of surgeries are usually performed on males and starting with the year 2000 over one million of hernia operations have been completed in US. For their business to be successful, the company relies more on word of mouth from its customers. The Hospital would promote using other type of advertizing like brochures but they worry about to not meet demand and keep the company performance the same.

Also for their success, the company keeps a reasonable cost for this operation so many customers could afford it. Their rates are lower than in other hospitals. Because the Hospital is not operations for a premium, the request for their specific service and recovery system is highly appreciated. Compare with its size, the Shouldice Hospital is very successful. Because of high demand the company is having difficulty in terms of capacity. In order to increase their output and keep their quality the company would need to larger the size of the building where the services are provided. But this results in large capital investments and substantial time.

The service model concentrate primary on the essential service of operating Hernias. The founder of hospital, Dr Shouldicce created the Shouldice unique operating method. The new procedure to treat the external types of abdominal hernias consists on arranging the abdominal muscles into three layers and reinforcing the abdominal wall with many rows of suture. Also they don’t use any foreign bodies such as synthetic screens or meshes. The service process of the hospital makes also the difference between Shouldice and other hospital. The majority of hernia repairs are done with sedative as sleeping pill, analgesic as pain relief pill and local anesthesia. All the patients are encouraged to walk on the hall up and down after surgery and get in touch with other patients and hospital staff. The rooms are designed as if it were at home not in the hospital giving to the patient more comfort. All in all, the Shouldice Hospital offers to its customers more than only a hernia surgery. They offer low risk, peace of mind, low recurrence, independence, control, fraternity and social experience.

The hospital marketing strategy includes three very important aspects as employees, customers and the company itself. From the management point of view, they want to keep their staff happy through profit sharing policy. Also they give them a lesser working load and weekends of. The company’s management understood that without dedicated employees with experience and motivation their service would not be recognized as high quality. There are many factors that contribute to the hospital’s profitability. The patients are carefully screened and they participate in the service delivery process. Using local anesthetics allows a wide range of involvement of patients. Staff is not involved in disagreeable work and because of hospital jobs’ structure they have a positive interaction with patients. Reducing the cost of nursing, laundry and housekeeping contribute to the hospital’s profitability.

Although their service system is highly valued, they still are having problems in terms of capacity because of high demand. The company would be more successful if it could find a mode to increase capacity without to diminish their quality’s service. The problem is that if Shouldice Hospital will add additional capacity to meet the market needs, this may affect and upset the existing work force and lower the service quality.

But failing to have the right capacity for new demand can invite competition. Increasing the size of the plant will involve large capital investment and a disruption to the quality and country atmosphere of the facility. Also they could add a new floor or build a new facility for hernia operation or expand to other types of operations. These will have some advantages but still more disadvantages. I think the best alternative will be starting the operations on Saturdays. In this way no needs for fresh investment, the quality of services can be maintained and will not require new surgeons.