Essay Sample: Analysis of the Hospital's Project of Free Children's Cancer Screening

Part 1: Risk and Mitigation Analysis

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St Jude Children's Hospital has been a major pillar of healthcare of children. It has been leading in the manners in which the global community contemplates treats and overcomes childhood cancer among other life-threatening diseases. Although other entities have emerged with severe engagements towards defeating cancerous ailments, St Jude has remained a center of integrated research for children diseases regionally and internationally. The mission of the hospital is advancing cures and prevention mechanism for pediatrics catastrophic ailments via research-based approaches and treatments. However, the realization of this mission is not easy devoid of the proposed free cancer screening for children are an important initiative for the hospital to pursue. In particular, this project would help mitigate various challenges associated with chronic levels of cancer ailments that complicate the treatment and recovery process. The hospital fund origins encompass ALSAC as the fundraising and awareness entity whose sole mission is to consolidate funds and create awareness that is essential for operations and maintenance of the hospital (Portner & Pridgen, 2014).

The proposed initiative involves the introduction of revenue-generating projects of cancer screening for children. One of the potential risks of introducing the program is the wrong understanding of st. Jude's patient population and the coverage of clinical services enjoyable. The ALSAC is already faced with financial challenges while raising funds in support of business projects and programs within the hospital's premises. As a result, the high rank of the hospital as the national referral center would imply significantly large flow children for screening services which would imply significant constraints in the facility to handle a large number of testing cases. Inefficiency in the hospital's Community Health Needs Assessment service may also limit their capacity to undertake a comprehensive testing program under the new establishment (Pui & Razzouk, 2000). However, increased number of children seeking cancer screening services may trigger a rise in humanitarian interventions with more financial increments to facilitate different operations within the company's operational framework. The company may institute regular mechanism for enhanced

Since the establishment of the hospital, it is pegged on a billing policy that does not require any billing of patients or their families, therefore. While this scenario is a relief to the patients and their family members, it may limit the progress of the new economic initiative for the hospital. Free cancer screening also provides a novel opportunity to increase public awareness of other services available in the hospital. Subsequently, the new establishment may spearhead an increase in new clients flow into the hospital an aspect that may eventually constrain its resources and reduce the propensity for high-quality services delivery. The hospital may undertake a parallel campaign for new philanthropists to support its function amidst a potential increase in core offerings including, cancer screening for the children population. The focus of the hospital towards children population limits possible benefits that could arise from Medicare coverage which incidentally minimizes their potential for enhanced revenue generation for recurrent expenditures among others. Nevertheless, with the new free cancer screening mechanism, the hospital may bill Medicaid that imposes non-cost sharing costs on under-aged children. In 1998 for instance, hospital incurred about $25.1 million as a cost of delivering services to the national patient fraternity against an injection of about $6.3 million by Medicaid payment and other forms of aids (St. Jude Children's Research HospitalWashington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project, 2012). From this historical perspective, the introduction of free cancer screening program will attract a significant rise in costs of operation that supersedes its revenue base.

In essence, ALSAC must engage in ethically sound practices that would lure more philanthropists in the long-run. In particular, ALSAC must integrate strong senses of integrity, respect, and excellence. Donors are the sole source of support for St Jude Children's Hospital and the life-blood of the ALSAC. Careful planning must form the basic point of the funding agency (ALSAC) to control future scenario as an occurrence of additional services in cancer screening and treatments. Besides, St Jude should intensify their lobbying activities to increase the number of affiliated hospitals and minimize the flock in numbers of children for cancer screening at Memphis as has been historically witnessed based on other forms of ailments. These diversification mechanisms are critical to enhanced serviced delivery in the hospital. The surrounding culture has been highly sensitive to costs besides being unaware of another service the St Jude offers in their premises (Portner & Pridgen, 2014). The hospital does not advertise its billing policy to prospective clients. Subsequently, the free cancer screening for children would help to promote awareness of the hospital products and services across the wider geographical region.

Part II: Cost-Benefit Analysis

The hospital intends to spend a total of $5billion towards the new project of free children's cancer screening. This process is critical as it constitutes a framework in which the project expenditures related to supply of equipment and human capital towards the new initiative is concerned. As indicated in the Excel sheet, the benefits attributed to the new projects are mainly linked with an improved satisfaction of the consumers while the hospital management remains indifferent from the service delivery. However, the primary goal of the clinic is to provide healthcare services based on research to the people of Memphis and their surroundings. In other instances, the hospital colludes with affiliate hospitals to enhance their physical capacity to offer adequate health care services (Rubnitz & Downing, 2009). The overall returns can, however, be quantified underestimation method only as they fall past the internal framework of the hospital as reflected upon in the excel sheet.

The institution should engage in training of personnel to handle the screening equipment to maintain the cost of operations constant, This process not only minimizes recurrent damages on the equipment but also enhance the outcomes of the selection processes in line with the St Jude's fundamental goal of improved healthcare across Memphis and beyond. The $5 billion investment into the new cancer screening project encompasses a set of expenditure that is dedicated primarily to the purchase of testing equipment and training of professionals. However, the above practice acts as a refresher training to revamp the human resource's ability to deliver effectively and efficiently in line with the institutional goals.

The initiative through free screening is pivotal to Memphis region due to its struggling economic position. The population is characteristically weak with an estimated unemployment rate of 8.7 percent and 36,000 fewer jobs in the city every subsequent month for the last half decade. This scenario reflects upon the dire need of free cancer screening services for Memphis residents that would yield an inevitably positive impact on the residents' health situation (Portner & Pridgen, 2014). The statistical evidence in support of this report demonstrates an acute demand for the program in the long-run.

References

Portner, A., & Pridgen, C. (2014). St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Viral Immunology and Immunopathology, 27.

Pui, C. H. & Razzouk, B. (2000). Long-term results of Total Therapy studies 11, 12 and 13A for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia at St Jude Children's Research Hospital.Leukemia, 14(12), 2286.

Rubnitz, J. E., & Downing, J. R. (2009). Acute mixed lineage leukemia in children: the experience of St Jude Children's Research Hospital. Blood, 113(21), 5083-5089.

St. Jude Children's Research HospitalWashington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project.(2012). Somatic histone H3 alterations in pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas and non-brainstem glioblastomas. Nature genetics, 44(3).