$1.$The Case of the Warm Brownies $-$Case for Chapter $5$Susan Casciani $517$Yolanda pulled into the parking lot of North County Clinic $($NCC$)$ Yolanda pulled into the parking lot of North County Clinic $($NCC$)$ already dreading the upcoming day. After months of back to back meetings, the strategic plan update she had led for the development of the clinic was finally being implemented. She should be happy and enjoying some well$-$deserved downtime, but instead she was in the hot seat with Tom, NCC$\text{'}$s new Administrator. As Yolanda trudged to her office, she tried to figure what had gone wrong. NCC is a large, $30-$physician primary care clinic located in the suburbs of a small metropolitan area in the Midwestern U$.$S$.$ The clinic has many ancillary services on location, including laboratory, imaging, diagnostic, and pharmacy services. It was not unusual for NCC$\text{'}$s employees to have been with the clinic for many years, and several employees have spent their entire career with NCC$.$ NCC is patient$-$centric and enjoys a great reputation for quality of care in the community, but NCC$\text{'}$s competitive advantage had always been their personal touch in everything they do$.$ Employees are known to bring in homemade baked goods to share with patients, and the clinic sends birthday and holiday cards to patients every year. It truly seems to just about everyone that NCC takes care of patients like family. Last year the clinic hired a new Admin$-$istrator, Tom Gardner, and it didn't take long for him to fit into the family of NCC$.$ Tom had a warm personality and was well liked by the majority of the staff. About $6$ months ago, Yolanda started the annual process of updating the clinic's strategic plan; they were currently entering the last year of a $3-$year plan. Tom came on board at NCC right as last year's planning cycle ended, and this year he instituted a lot of changes to how NCC normally did their planning. As an example, in the past Yolanda and her staff would meet with various clinic stakeholders on an ongoing basis to gather market information and monitor trends. This helped Yolanda ensure the clinic's strategies stayed on track and were responsive to the market and hospital resources. Tom, however, was more comfortable with getting market data from third$-$party companies that specialized in tracking health care data and trends and he instructed Yolanda to outsource this function this year. Although the information these companies provided seemed on target, Yolanda felt that something was missing, but she could never quite put her finger on what. Once the external assessment was completed based on the third$-$party data, Tom had Yolanda present the information to the management of the clinic. This group included managers from each of the operational areas, along with the lead physician. Everyone seemed pleased with Yolandas presentation, although few questions were asked. Yolanda found this interesting as the data pointed toward discontinuing the clinic's personal outreach services in favor of a more high$-$tech marketing approach. She thought for sure

managers wouldn't like this trend as it would involve less time staff would spend out in the community, but most seemed excited by the prospect of being in television commercials for the clinic. Many of the managers started joking about getting asked for autographs once they became "famous." Yolanda then wo

A$.$Specifically identify the major and secondary problems. What are the real issues? What are the differences? Can secondary issues become major problems? Present analysis of the cause and effects. Fully explain your reasoning.

B$.$In a sentence or short paragraph, declare from which role you will address the major problem, whether you are a senior manager, financial manager, operational manager departmental manager, or an outside consultant called in to advise. Regardless of your choice, you must justify in writing why you chose that role. What are the advantages and disadvantages of your selected role? Be specific

C$.$Identify the strengths and weaknesses that exist about the major problem. Again, your focus here should be on describing what the organization is capable of doing $($and not capable of doing$)$ concerning addressing the major problems. Thus, the identified strengths and weaknesses should include those at the managerial level departmental perspective. If the department is understaffed, that is a weakness worthy of mentioning. Be sure to include any strengths$/$weaknesses that may be related to diversity issues.

D$.$Describe the two to three alternative solutions you came up with. What feasible strategies would you recommend? What are the pros and cons? State what should be done $-$why$,$ how, and by whom. Be specific.

E$.$How will you know when you've gotten there? There must be measurable goals put in place with the recommendations. Money is easiest to measure; what else can be measured? What evaluation plan would you put in place to assess whether you are reaching your goals?