| Course | BUSI 494 Healthcare Administration Capstone (BUSI494) |
|---|---|
| Module/Week | 7 |
| Assignment | Group Assurance of Learning Exercise 3 |
| Paper type | 12-slide board presentation with speaker notes |
| Length | about 864 words, 3 double-spaced pages plus title page and references. Course guide: a group response to the case questions presented as findings and recommendations to the organization's Board of Directors, supported by the text and peer-reviewed sources in current APA format |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| Points | 100 |
| School | Liberty University Online |
| Program | BS in Healthcare Administration |
| Where it sits | Module/Week 7 in Liberty's published BUSI 494 course guide; current sections can differ |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BUSI 494 Week 7
Three Priorities for the Next Three Years: A Capstone Group's Strategic Recommendations to a Community Hospital Board
[Student Name]
School of Business, Liberty University
BUSI 494: Healthcare Administration Capstone
Group Assurance of Learning Exercise 3
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The course assigns its own Middleboro Casebook case for this exercise; this sample presents to the board of a composite community hospital, with slide text as bullets and speaker notes as paragraphs. The textbooks, Scripture and peer-reviewed sources cited are real.
Three Priorities for the Next Three Years: A Capstone Group's Strategic Recommendations to a Community Hospital Board
Slide 1: Purpose of Today's Presentation
- Share what our analysis found
- Recommend three priorities for 2027 to 2029
- Ask for three decisions today
Speaker notes: We appreciate the board making room for us on today's agenda. Our group was asked to review the hospital's position and recommend a strategy for the next three years. We will keep the slides brief and leave time for questions. At the end, we will ask the board for three specific decisions, so you may want to keep those in mind as we go.
Slide 2: Where We Stand
- Only independent hospital in a city of 120,000
- Occupancy above 90% on weekdays
- Operating margin near zero
- Regional system expanding in our market
Speaker notes: The hospital remains the community's main source of acute care, and residents are loyal to it. But beds are full most weekdays, margins are thin and a regional system has opened urgent care and cancer services here while employing local physicians. Moseley (2018) reminds us that strategy begins with an honest picture of the present, and this is ours.
Slide 3: What the Environment Is Telling Us
- More Medicare patients in Medicare Advantage plans
- Longer stays and slower discharges for those patients
- Physicians choosing between employment and independence
- Care moving to outpatient and home settings
Speaker notes: National evidence matches what we see locally. McGarry et al. (2025) examined tens of millions of admissions and found that hospital stays for Medicare Advantage patients grew longer than stays for patients in traditional Medicare, mostly because arranging care after discharge took longer. For a hospital that is already full, every extra day a patient waits for placement is a day another patient waits in the emergency department.
Slide 4: The Central Strategic Issue
- We are losing control of three things at once:
- Our capacity
- Our physician relationships
- Our outpatient growth
Speaker notes: Pressures on community hospitals tend to arrive together, a pattern the Middleboro cases return to often (Seidel & Lewis, 2017). Our recommendations address each of these three areas, and they reinforce each other.
Slide 5: Priority 1: Recover Capacity
- Discharge partnerships with nursing homes and home health
- Dedicated staff for insurer authorizations
- A small hospital-at-home program for selected patients
Speaker notes: Recovering even ten beds a day would ease boarding and allow more surgery. The discharge partnerships and authorization staff address the delays that research links to Medicare Advantage stays, and a hospital-at-home program adds capacity without construction.
Slide 6: Priority 2: Align With Physicians
- Form a clinically integrated network with independent physicians
- Offer shared records, billing and purchasing support
- Employ selectively where a specialty is at risk
Speaker notes: We considered buying practices on a large scale but do not recommend it. Post et al. (2018) reviewed the research on hospitals acquiring physician practices and concluded that it has generally raised prices and spending without clear gains in quality. A network lets physicians stay independent while working with us on quality and contracting.
Slide 7: Priority 3: Grow Outpatient Services
- Ambulatory surgery developed with local surgeons
- Expanded imaging hours and published self-pay prices
- Primary care access goal: new patients seen within ten days
Speaker notes: Care is moving out of the hospital, and we should lead that move in our community rather than watch competitors do it. These investments build on services where we already have strength and physicians who want to stay.
Slide 8: Obstetrics Under Clear Conditions
- Continue the unit for two years with a regional partnership
- Thresholds for recruitment, finances and safety
- Planned transition if thresholds are not met
Speaker notes: We recommend keeping local births for now, with conditions the board sets today. If the conditions are not met, the hospital would move to a prenatal and postpartum center through an orderly transition rather than an abrupt closure.
Slide 9: Financial Outlook
- Capacity gains fund much of the plan
- Network costs shared with participating physicians
- Ambulatory surgery as a joint venture to limit capital
Speaker notes: The plan is designed to pay for itself over three years. Freed beds allow more surgical cases, network costs are shared and the surgery center would be built with physician investors rather than solely with hospital capital.
Slide 10: How the Board Will Monitor Progress
- Quarterly balanced scorecard with sixteen measures
- Financial, patient, process and workforce perspectives
- Each measure with an owner and a target
Speaker notes: Jha and Epstein (2010) surveyed the board chairs of 1,000 U.S. hospitals and learned that quality made the top two board priorities in under half of them, and that boards at the best-performing hospitals engaged with quality far more than boards at the weakest. A balanced scorecard would keep this board's attention on every goal in the plan, not only the margin.
Slide 11: Risks and How We Will Respond
- Slow physician enrollment: revisit selective employment at month 12
- Hospital-at-home payment uncertainty: start small
- Staff turnover: retention plan for nurses and technologists
Speaker notes: Every strategy carries risk. We have tied each major risk to a trigger and a response so the board can see in advance how the plan would adjust.
Slide 12: Decisions We Ask of the Board Today
- Approve the three priorities for 2027 to 2029
- Approve the obstetrics conditions and two-year review
- Adopt the quarterly balanced scorecard
Speaker notes: A board's most important strategic act is not approving a plan; it is agreeing in advance on how it will know whether the plan is working. Isaiah writes that the noble person plans noble things and stands by them (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Isaiah 32:8). We believe this plan serves the community the hospital was built for, and we would welcome your questions.
References
English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)
Jha, A., & Epstein, A. (2010). Hospital governance and the quality of care. Health Affairs, 29(1), 182-187. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2009.0297
McGarry, B. E., Wilcock, A. D., Gandhi, A. D., Grabowski, D. C., & Barnett, M. L. (2025). Extended hospital stays in Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare. JAMA Internal Medicine, 185(11), 1362-1369. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.4411
Moseley, G. B., III. (2018). Managing health care business strategy (2nd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Post, B., Buchmueller, T., & Ryan, A. M. (2018). Vertical integration of hospitals and physicians: Economic theory and empirical evidence on spending and quality. Medical Care Research and Review, 75(4), 399-433. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077558717727834
Seidel, L. F., & Lewis, J. B. (2017). The Middleboro casebook: Healthcare strategy and operations (2nd ed.). Health Administration Press.
What the BUSI 494 Week 7 instructions ask
The third group case exercise comes in the seventh module of BUSI 494, after chapters 19 and 20 of Moseley, and Peer Evaluation 3 follows it. Like the earlier group exercises, it asks the team to diagnose strategic issues, evaluate alternatives and recommend actionable plans, supported by the text and peer-reviewed sources in current APA format, with length and reference requirements set in the assignment. Unlike the others, this exercise ends in a presentation of the group's findings to the organization's board of directors, the capstone's final test of applied strategy, so the work must be organized from the start for decision makers who will read slides quickly and ask pointed questions about cost, risk and timing.
How this BUSI 494 Week 7 example is built
The sample presentation runs twelve slides. It opens with the purpose of the meeting and the hospital's current position, summarizes what the environmental scan revealed and states the central strategic issue in one sentence. Three slides set out the recommended priorities, and one explains the conditions under which the obstetrics unit would continue. The group then outlines the financial outlook, proposes a balanced scorecard for board oversight, lists the main risks with responses and ends with the specific decisions the board is asked to make. Speaker notes under each slide carry the evidence and explanation a presenter would give aloud, with sources cited in APA style. Isaiah's words about noble plans frame the closing appeal.
BUSI 494 Week 7 grading rubric: where the points go
Board presentations are generally graded on whether recommendations flow from a clear diagnosis, whether options were genuinely weighed, whether the plan is specific and achievable and whether the presentation suits its audience. Faculty want slides a busy trustee can absorb at a glance, with notes underneath that carry the analysis and its evidence. Closing with the specific approvals requested shows an understanding of governance. Peer Evaluation 3 follows, so fair contributions and a consistent look across members' slides matter, and groups that rehearse together usually produce smoother handoffs. A reference slide in APA format, separate from the twelve content slides, completes the deck.
BUSI 494 Week 7 help: mistakes that cost points
Build the deck around the decisions you want the board to make, then work backward to the evidence the board needs. Limit each slide to a few brief bullets and let the notes do the explaining, as a presenter would aloud. Give the central strategic issue one slide and each recommendation no more than one. Show how progress will be measured, since oversight is the board's job. Cite the textbook and research in the notes and again on a final reference slide. Rehearse together so each section leads into the next, and prepare short answers to the cost and risk questions a skeptical trustee will ask.
Related BUSI 494 sample papers
Other BUSI 494 weeks
- BUSI 494 Week 1: Discussion Board Forum 1
- BUSI 494 Week 2: Individual Assurance of Learning
- BUSI 494 Week 3: Group Assurance of Learning 1
- BUSI 494 Week 4: Discussion Board Forum 2
- BUSI 494 Week 5: Group Assurance of Learning 2
- BUSI 494 Week 6: Discussion Board Forum 3
- BUSI 494 Week 8: Discussion Board Forum 4
More BS in Healthcare Administration sample papers
- BUSI 418 Week 7: Discussion Board Forum 8
- BUSI 419 Week 7: Position Paper
- BUSI 428 Week 7: Discussion Board Forum 7
- BUSI 429 Week 7: Discussion Board Forum 7
BUSI 494 Week 7 questions, answered
What is BUSI 494 Group Assurance of Learning Exercise 3?
The third 100-point group case exercise in BUSI 494, due in Module/Week 7, in which the group presents its findings and recommendations to the organization's board of directors.
Where can I find a free BUSI 494 Week 7 sample paper?
Scroll up for the full BUSI 494 Week 7 board presentation, built as twelve slides with speaker notes, evidence behind each priority and a final slide of requested decisions.
How should a strategy presentation to a hospital board be organized?
Start with the purpose and the decisions requested, summarize the situation and central issue, present a few clear priorities with evidence, show how progress will be measured and close with the specific approvals needed.
Do hospital boards affect quality of care?
A survey of the board chairs of 1,000 U.S. hospitals found quality ranked among the top two board priorities in under half, and boards of top-performing hospitals were far more engaged with quality.
What else is due in BUSI 494 Module/Week 7?
Peer Evaluation 3 follows the presentation, and students read chapters 19 and 20 of Moseley; the final group forum follows in Module/Week 8.
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