From Price staff reports
A team of graduate students from the USC Price School of Public Policy triumphed over six other universities to win the 2013 College Bowl — a case-study competition that provides students an opportunity for hands-on strategic teamwork.
The College Bowl is presented annually by the Health Care Executives of Southern California, which is the southern California chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a professional association of more than 40,000 executives in the health industry. This year’s competition was held on the campus of Cal State San Bernardino on April 26.
Master of Health Administration students Alex Grant, Jesse Levi and Andrew Meehan and executive MHA student Aaron Margulis competed against teams from Cal State Long Beach (which finished second), UCLA (which placed third), Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Northridge, Loma Linda University and host Cal State San Bernardino.
Each team was given two weeks to study and analyze a 73-page case study that focused on an independent community hospital in California in financial distress, and then prepare a set of strategies to help the facility reach a state of solvency.
The USC Price team leveraged three phases: operational turnaround; balance sheet rehabilitation; and position for acquisition.
In their recommendation, the team suggested that the hospital’s “long-term financial viability is predicated on joining a health system that would create economies of scale and infuse the institution with the necessary capital resources to flourish in the post-reform world,” according to Meehan.
“In winning this prestigious competition, not only did our students demonstrate innovation and critical analysis, but they showed how their ideas can lead to real solutions in the challenging field of healthcare,” said Professor Mike Nichol, director of graduate programs in health at USC Price.