The Centro de Gestión Hospitalaria (Hospital Management Center)

 

Authors

Roberto Gutiérrez

University

Universidad de los Andes Colombia

Published in

2003

In 2001, Colombia’s Centro de Gestión Hospitalaria (Hospital Management Center, CGH), a nonprofit, mixed corporation created in 1992 “to promote and lead health management transformation in order to contribute to overall sector development,” posted 210 million Colombian pesos (Col$) (roughly US$ 91,000) in losses. CGH’s management needed a strategy to put an end to its operating losses and ensure its survival. To enable class participants to elaborate alternative courses of action, the case provides information on the organization’s background, activities and achievements over its ten-year existence, its structure and daily operations, and its associations with several companies. The case outlines CGH’s key features to support the strategic decisions required to tackle its operating losses:

  • Close ties with business leaders –CGH’s origins dated back to a request for assistance made by a Bogota university hospital’s board to Corona’s chairman, who offered to help the hospital with management improvements. Since then, private-sector executives have contributed their business and managerial skills to enhance hospital management and have actively supported CGH operations.
  • A product portfolio -including training, advisory, research and dissemination services- that caters to specific sector needs. Despite its product and service quality, CGH has lost market share, as other consultants and organizations (including some hospitals) are now offering similar products and services, effectively competing with CGH. Having developed its Quality Guarantee project, CGH will hold a remarkable competitive advantage when Colombia’s Ministry of Health enforces the new law on Quality System for the nation’s health sector.

Case exhibits also provide information on CGH members, its costs and revenues, and its projects’ margin contributions in 1999, 2000 and 2001. The cases comes to an end in mid 2002 and discussions may close with the developments that took place when the new government took office in August that year.

By discussing this case, students can gain a better understanding of how competitors can collaborate in some areas, as well as the need to renew the value created for individual partners in order to keep an alliance alive and fruitful. Both intellectual takeaways will prove useful to fully understand alliances, especially those involving multiple partners.