UNC team brings home Cleveland Clinic case competition prize

April 22, 2014

A team of three health policy and management students from UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health took home first prize April 18 at the inaugural Cleveland Clinic (Ohio) Case Competition.

Left to right are Sally Bogus, Cleveland Clinic chief executive officer Dr. Delos Cosgrove, Daniel Douthit and Alison Cary-Coleman.

Daniel Douthit, Alison Cary-Coleman and Sally Bogus, joint Master of Healthcare Administration and Master of Business Administration candidates, were members of the winning team.

The Cleveland Clinic Case Competition offers graduate students in health administration an opportunity to apply coursework to a real-world situation by developing recommendations to share with a team of executives at an internationally recognized health system.

More than 40 students from top MBA and MHA programs across the country were invited to participate in the event. The case focused on the strategy of Cleveland Clinic’s Heart and Vascular Institute (HVI) in the rapidly changing health-care environment. Students were given detailed information and data on HVI’s quality and patient experience metrics and virtual program offerings, as well as recent expansion initiatives. They were then asked to develop innovative strategies to grow HVI’s patient network and transition to value-based care.

“I attribute our success to our ability to accurately identify the key questions and put forth a recommendation that leveraged the Cleveland Clinic’s existing strengths while preparing them for the transition to value based payments,” Bogus said.

Participants were given a weekend to develop recommendations that were reviewed by a team of Cleveland Clinic physicians and administrators. Thirteen teams participated in the competition, and four finalists were selected to present onsite to a panel of judges made up by Cleveland Clinic senior executives.

“The competition was a great opportunity for our team to apply the hospital management lessons learned at Gillings School of Public Health to a practical, real-world problem,” Cary-Coleman said.  “We are proud to have had this opportunity to showcase the strategic planning skills we have developed across the MBA/MHA program and bring home another Tar Heel victory!”
 
Other finalists included students from Cornell University, University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania.