The document provides an overview of Shouldice Hospitals Limited, a unique hospital in Ontario formed by Dr. Shouldice to operate hospital and clinical facilities specializing in external abdominal hernias. The hospital saw consistent patient flow throughout the year due to recommendations from previous patients. It also ensured staff could perform multiple roles. The hospital sought to expand its capacity while maintaining service standards and preventing potential rivals from copying its techniques. Suggested options included increasing capacity 50% in the current facility, opening new locations, or expanding services. The response recommends increasing current capacity by 50% to address more patients, patent treatment methods, and eventually expand to new locations.

1. Shouldice
Hospital
Limited
SM Session 1, 2

2. Overview
● Shouldice Hospitals Limited is one of its kind in the city of Ontario formed by
Dr.Shouldice to operate both the hospital and clinical facilities
● The hospital followed only external abdominal hernias which took around 45 mins for first-
time repairs and recurrences and very difficult hernia repairs required 90 minutes or more
● The hospital never advertised but the flow of patients was consistent throughout the year
and from different parts of the country and the popularity was due to recommendations
from previous Shouldice patients
● And another unique aspect of the administration is that they insist that each secretary is
trained to do another’s work and in an emergency is able to switch to another function
immediately. And the main attraction for the hospital was its reasonable rates
2

3. Problems & Plans
Look for ways
to expand the
hospital's
capacity
01 02
Keeping control
over the standard of
the services
provided
05
04
Shouldice
technique used
by potential
rivals
03
Government's
potential future
involvement in
the hospital's
operations
04
3

4. Alternatives
Offering hospital services on
Saturdays
Increasing the capacity in the current
facility by 50%
Opening a new hospital in other
locations
Expanding into additional specialties
like eye surgery, varicose vein
treatment, or diagnostic services 4

5. Which of the suggested
options must Shouldice
adopt? Why.
5

6. ● They should go for increasing their current capacity by
50% with the investment of $4 million, this will help
them address more patients as there is an increasing
number of hernia cases (1,000,000 in the US alone). As
the hospital relies on word of mouth of patients this will
the hospital in generating more awareness. An increase
in capacity would also the hospital in addressing the
backlog cases more efficiently.
● In order to prevent future competitors from copying its
treatment methods, the hospital can patent those
procedures.
● In the long run, the hospital could go for expanding into
other locations such as the US as the travel fare ranges
from $200-$600. Since the patients were attracted to the
hospital for its reasonable rates, expansion to new
locations would help them reach more patients.
Recommendations
6

7. Thank You
7