SWOT Analysis HCA Hospital - Case Study Example

SWOT Analysis- HCA Hospital SWOT Analysis This is the analysis of the strengths and weaknessesthat can be found within the hospital’s internal environment that relate to the effectiveness and efficiency of how the hospital carries out its operations (Jim, 2012). On the other hand, the analysis also includes identifying the opportunities and threats that would present themselves in the hospital’s external environment, aimed at strengthening or weakening its competitive strategies in the market and the industry at large.

StrengthsTo begin with, the hospital has a high bond rating of BBB compared to the ratings of a similar size hospital in the region. This is strength to the hospital as it enables it to receive favorable interest rates from the bond market (Carmelo, 2013). With favorable interests from bonds, the hospital can be able to issue the new proposed bond of $80 million easily to refinance the previous bond and get the extra $10 million to purchase and update its medical equipment. Another of the hospital is that, the hospital has a large measure of stability even during hard times, hence gaining credibility to its management team by the rating agencies.

This then is another reason that makes the hospital’s bonds to receive favorable interests in the market, hence can be reissued for better interests to settle the outstanding bonds and the balance be used to buy medical equipment required to update the hospital’s equipment standard.WeaknessesThe hospital faces serious financial problems that it needs to update its technology in order to deliver quality services to the patients especially at the diagnostic and surgical departments. Given that the hospital is a non-profit making, it tends to collect less funds that may not be able to be enough for such equipment and the running of the hospital at large.

OpportunitiesThe fact that the hospital is located in a metropolitan area is a strategic opportunity to enable it receive and serve as many people as possible in order to make it achieve its core goals and objectives. Being that many area residents do not have healthcare coverage and do not qualify for the Medicaid program, the hospital then exploits this opportunity to provide services to this classes of people in order to meet its mission of free medical services and non-profit making. ThreatsThe hospital, however, is faced with a threat of the high healthcare costs that has been contributed to by a nationwide shortage of nurses as well as family practice doctors.

This is a threat in that, the hospital in its endeavors must be facing hard time to hire both doctors and nurses given this shortage as the few available are competed over by other hospitals that also require offering good and quality healthcare services. To hire nurses and doctors must be very expensive, and with the hospital’s aim of non-profit making, it must be facing a stiff competition against those hospitals that are profit making, hence can afford to offer high pay to doctors and nurses and have many of them hence leaving HCA hospital with insufficient medical practitioners.

Conclusion In a nutshell, the hospital needs to be aware of the threats it faces so as to launch a defense mechanism to be able to turn the threats into opportunities and also know about the opportunities so that it can exploit them to increase its effectiveness and efficiency in operation against its major competitors. Knowing about its weaknesses will help the hospital to apply strategies that will be appropriate to change the weaknesses to strengths, and the knowledge on strength will help the hospital to be able to know which areas to provide with which resources in order to improve the general healthcare.

ReferencesCarmelo, M. (2013). Bond Issuance and Interst Rates. High Yield Bonds Journal , 1-3.Jim, R. (2012). SWOT Analysis. Tutor to You Business Strategy Journal , 1-4.