When you get up in morning, drink a full glass of water before you start your day. Add a lemon slice if you like. Then get and additional 10-12 glasses of water in throughout day.

- Eat slowly.

Chew your food 10-12 times before swallowing. Your saliva starts digestion process, and if you don't chew enough, your stomach has to work twice as hard and many times you don't get much out of foods you eat -- except maybe some indigestion :). - Split your entree.

When eating out, split your entree with your dining companion. Most restaurants now serve portions that are up to 8 times recommended serving size. Supplement with a salad, soup or vegetable to complete your meal. - Avoid sodas.

Did you know that an average soda has 14 teaspoons of sugar? Not only are these empty calories and carbs that take you on a blood sugar roller coaster and add pounds, sugar also can also cripple your immune system for up to 5 hours leaving your body working overtime and open to infections, viruses and effects of stress. Drinking one soda a day can pack on an average of 16 lbs of unwanted weight! Cutting out soda alone will take off at least 16 lbs a year or more.

Additionally, recent studies have linked increased soda consumption with certain cancers and a loss of essential minerals.

TCTM Service AreaPopulationOHS Utilization RateTCTM Projected Volume Primary TCTM™211,0122.76582 Secondary TCTM™76,0883.22245 * The primary TCTM utilization rates can differ from secondary TCTM.

Utilization rates can be obtained through most state healthcare agencies or reports from third party data collection companies. Following a thorough market assessment, a cardiovascular operational review provided senior management with a detailed summary of current clinical area capability and what would be required for expansion. The operational analysis reviewed existing equipment, ancillary services capacity, staffing, and workflow processes. In addition, all future cardiac expansion needs were identified in a facility plan designed to provide a clinically and technically advanced program. The “state of art” design, One Stop Post Op™ was chosen by this facility to provide a new approach to post surgery care and a distinct competitive advantage. The One Stop Post Op model allows cardiovascular patient to remain in same room from admission to discharge. The nursing care level adapts to accommodate changing patient needs. The next step was to develop an accurate financial assessment of proposed expansion. The financial assessment was developed with historical information sources and assumptions for sensitivity and impact modeling. The finance department provided information on payor mix, reimbursement, salary, supply and indirect expense, capital investment, and projected facility expansion costs. Due to vulnerability of health care environment, senior management challenged financial model to test impact of various cardiac expansion scenarios. Return on investment of each scenario was analyzed and evaluated to determine profitability and margins. The demand projections were basis for financial model to produce a financial summary and following financial statements: Revenue & Expense, Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, and Revenue. The financial summary provided senior management with a five year pro forma projecting average return on investment and payback period for cardiac expansion project. In this instance, five year average ROI was 20.4% and projected payback period at 5.61 years. The Cardiovascular Expansion Feasibility Study provided senior management with a concise overview of needs of patients and community that hospital served. Feedback and guidance from medical staff was solicited and considered before a decision to proceed was made as physician support and acceptance is vital to program success. A through due diligence to accurately estimate level of resources, both operational and capital was essential to process and permitted organization to carefully evaluate financial viability of expanding services. In essence, study enabled key stakeholders to strategically decide on a course of action that could have a significant short-term effect and impact organization’s long-range future position as an acute care provider. The community based hospital in this case study approved cardiovascular expansion project and used feasibility study in multiple ways. They were able to document need and identify an underserved population as support for state application for a CON, feasibility study provided documentation necessary to secure financing and provided a “road map” for implementation of project. The report was used as a guide often during preplanning and start-up phase and after implementation of interventional cardiology and open heart surgery as a benchmark for review against actual program performance.

Conclusion

Hospitals experiencing increasing levels of financial and market risk are turning to feasibility studies to determine if they should offer new or expanded services. This case study analysis is an overview and discusses thoroughness of entire feasibility process. The process proved to be essential to this hospital’s strategic financial planning. Organizations, making substantial investments to expand into unfamiliar territory cannot make sound business decisions without proper tools. The cost of a feasibility study is a relatively small expenditure in light of overall project cost, but hospitals are finding it to be essential and vital to expansion success.