| Course | HCS 235 Health Care Delivery in the U.S. (HCS/235) |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Stakeholder analysis |
| Length | about 1,005 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Health Administration |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for HCS 235 Week 3
Who Wins, Who Worries and Who Decides: Mapping Stakeholders in a Hospital's Plan to Open a Freestanding Outpatient Surgery Center
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
HCS/235: Health Care Delivery in the U.S.
Week 3 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The hospital, the proposal and the stakeholder positions are composites written for a model paper.
A 280-bed community hospital in a growing suburban county has proposed opening a freestanding outpatient surgery center four miles from its main campus. The center would have four operating rooms for orthopedic, eye, gastrointestinal and general surgery cases that do not require an overnight stay. Supporters say it would lower costs and shorten waits; critics worry about competition, traffic and who would be left behind. The proposal offers a clear window into how stakeholders shape health care delivery. This paper identifies the stakeholders, explains their interests and classifies their likely influence.
Stakeholder Analysis
A stakeholder is any person or group that can affect or is affected by an organization's decisions. Savage et al. (1991) proposed judging each stakeholder on two questions: how much potential does it have to threaten the organization, and how much potential does it have to cooperate? The answers produce four types. Supportive stakeholders are high in cooperation and low in threat. Marginal stakeholders are low in both. Nonsupportive stakeholders are high in threat and low in cooperation. Mixed blessing stakeholders are high in both and can swing either way. Each type calls for a different strategy.
Patients
Patients who need common outpatient procedures want lower costs, shorter waits and convenient locations. Freestanding surgery centers typically charge less than hospital outpatient departments for the same procedure, which can lower a patient's coinsurance. Patients have little organized power, but their choices, and their complaints, shape demand.
Surgeons
Surgeons are divided. Orthopedic and eye surgeons, who do most of their work on outpatients, favor the center because it offers faster turnover between cases and more predictable schedules. Some may want to invest in it. General surgeons who operate mostly on inpatients see little benefit. Surgeons who operate at a competing center across town may oppose it.
Hospital Staff and Leadership
Hospital executives see the center as a way to keep outpatient cases from moving to competitors and to free main operating rooms for complex inpatient surgery. Perioperative nurses and technicians worry about transfers and schedules. The board must weigh the investment against other capital needs.
Payers
Payers have strong interests and strong influence. Of the $4.9 trillion the nation spent on health in 2023, most passed through private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid (Martin et al., 2025). Because they pay the bills, insurers and public programs effectively decide whether the center can succeed: commercial insurers will welcome lower-cost sites but negotiate hard on rates, while Medicare sets payment rates for surgery centers that are generally lower than those for hospital outpatient departments. Payers are likely to cooperate with a lower-cost site if it does not simply add volume.
Employers
Local employers, including a large school district and a manufacturing plant that self-insure, pay a large part of their workers' health costs. They support lower-cost sites and may steer employees to the center through benefit design. Their influence comes through insurers and through direct contracts.
Regulators and Accreditors
Because this state makes new surgical facilities obtain a certificate of need, its health planning agency will decide whether the center may open at all. To receive Medicare payment, the center must meet federal conditions for coverage, and it will seek accreditation from a recognized body. Regulators have high potential to block the project and a formal process for cooperating with it.
Competitors
An independent surgery center across town, partly owned by local physicians, stands to lose cases and will likely oppose the certificate of need application. It can present evidence at public hearings and rally its physician owners.
Suppliers and Industry
Device makers, implant vendors and surgical supply companies also have a stake. A new center means new equipment purchases and, for implant makers, competition to be the preferred vendor for joint replacement cases as those move to outpatient settings. These companies rarely appear at public hearings, but they influence surgeons' preferences and the center's costs. Group purchasing organizations, which negotiate supply contracts for hospitals, will decide whether the center buys through the hospital's existing contracts, which affects its prices from the first day. Their stance is cooperative so long as the center brings volume, which makes them useful but conditional partners.
The Community
Neighbors near the proposed site worry about traffic. Community advocates ask whether the center will accept Medicaid patients, since outpatient centers sometimes serve fewer patients with public or no insurance, leaving the hospital with a sicker, poorer mix.
Sorting the Stakeholders
Applying the typology: supportive stakeholders include hospital leadership, orthopedic and eye surgeons, self-insured employers and most patients. Marginal stakeholders include general surgeons and neighbors not directly affected. Nonsupportive stakeholders include the competing center and its physician owners. Mixed blessing stakeholders include commercial insurers, the state health planning agency, perioperative staff and community advocates, all of whom could become strong allies or strong opponents depending on how the hospital responds.
Strategies for Each Type
Savage et al. (1991) recommend involving supportive stakeholders, monitoring marginal ones, defending against nonsupportive ones and collaborating with mixed blessing stakeholders. For this project, the hospital would involve supportive surgeons in design, keep neighbors informed through a community meeting, prepare data on need and cost to answer the competitor at hearings and collaborate with insurers, regulators, staff and advocates by committing to accept Medicaid, sharing cost projections and guaranteeing staff positions.
Why Stakeholders Matter to the System
The same pattern repeats across U.S. health care. Payers, providers, employers, government and communities pull in different directions, and changes happen when enough of them see a gain. Understanding stakeholders is how a health administrator predicts which ideas will move and which will stall (Shi & Singh, 2022).
Conclusion
A single surgery center proposal involves at least ten stakeholder groups with different interests and power. Sorting them by their potential to threaten and cooperate shows where support is secure, where it must be earned and where opposition is likely. The analysis is a small model of how the whole system makes decisions.
References
Martin, A. B., Hartman, M., Washington, B., Catlin, A., & The National Health Expenditure Accounts Team. (2025). National health expenditures in 2023: Faster growth as insurance coverage and utilization increased. Health Affairs, 44(1), 12-22. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2024.01375
Savage, G. T., Nix, T. W., Whitehead, C. J., & Blair, J. D. (1991). Strategies for assessing and managing organizational stakeholders. Academy of Management Executive, 5(2), 61-75. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1991.4274682
Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2022). Delivering health care in America: A systems approach (8th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
What the HCS 235 Week 3 instructions ask
The Week 3 assignment in HCS 235 generally asks students to identify the major stakeholders in the United States health care system and explain their roles, interests and influence. Versions include a health care industry overview grid in which students list stakeholder groups and describe each, a short paper on how stakeholders shape policy or delivery, or an analysis of stakeholders affected by a specific change. Common groups include patients, providers, payers, employers, government, regulators and industries such as pharmaceutical and device makers. Many prompts also ask how stakeholders interact or conflict. Length is usually one to three pages or a completed grid, with APA citations. Instructors look for accurate roles, specific interests and a sense of relative power.
How this HCS 235 Week 3 example is built
The paper uses one decision so that stakeholders appear with real interests rather than as a list. It opens with the hospital's proposal and why it matters. A short section explains stakeholder analysis and the Savage and colleagues typology, which sorts stakeholders by their potential to threaten an organization and their potential to cooperate with it. Ten stakeholder groups follow, each with its interest in the surgery center and its likely stance. National health expenditure data show the share of spending controlled by private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, which explains payer influence. The groups are then sorted into the four types of the typology. The paper ends with a management strategy for each type and a note on how the same method applies to other decisions.
HCS 235 Week 3 grading rubric: where the points go
Grading for stakeholder assignments usually emphasizes accurate identification and depth of analysis. Faculty look for the major groups to be present, their roles described correctly and their interests stated specifically, with some judgment about relative power or influence. Use of a framework or model earns credit, as do current data on spending or coverage. For grid versions, each row is checked for accuracy and completeness; for paper versions, organization and the connection between interests and behavior matter. Mechanics, meaning grammar and APA form, make up the balance. Papers lose points when stakeholders are listed with generic descriptions, when payers or regulators are confused, or when the analysis never explains how stakeholders actually influence the system.
HCS 235 Week 3 help: mistakes to avoid
A common mistake in HCS 235 Week 3 is listing stakeholders with one-line definitions, such as "patients receive care," without explaining their interests or influence. Ask what each group wants and what power it has to get it. Another mistake is treating stakeholders as united; physicians, for example, may split between those who gain and those who lose from a change. Students also forget less visible stakeholders, such as employers, accreditors and local communities. Use current spending or coverage data to show influence. Avoid taking sides; describe interests fairly. Finally, if the prompt allows, anchor your analysis in a specific decision, because interests become much clearer when there is something concrete at stake.
Related HCS 235 sample papers
Other HCS 235 week samples
- HCS 235 Week 1: The Evolution of Health Care
- HCS 235 Week 2: Health Care Services
- HCS 235 Week 4: Health Care Financing
- HCS 235 Week 5: Forecasting the Future of Health Care
More BS in Health Administration sample papers
- HCS 120 Week 3: Who's in Health Administration
- HCS 131 Week 3: Collaboration Through Conflict
- HCS 325 Week 3: Motivation and Conflict Management
- HCS 341 Week 3: Recruitment and Selection Plan
HCS 235 Week 3 questions, answered
What does HCS/235 Week 3 usually ask for?
Many sections ask students to identify stakeholders in the U.S. health care system, such as patients, providers, payers, employers and government, and to explain their roles, interests and influence, sometimes in a grid.
Where can I find a free HCS 235 Week 3 sample paper?
The stakeholder analysis above is the free HCS 235 Week 3 sample, built around a hospital's surgery center plan and annotated in the margins. A first custom sample for your own grid or scenario is free on request.
What is a stakeholder in health care?
Any person, group or organization that affects or is affected by a health care organization's decisions, including patients, clinicians, payers, employers, regulators, suppliers and the community.
What is the Savage stakeholder typology?
It classifies stakeholders by their potential to threaten and to cooperate with an organization into four types, supportive, marginal, nonsupportive and mixed blessing, each with a suggested management strategy.
Which payer spends the most on U.S. health care?
Private health insurance is the largest single source of health spending, followed by Medicare and Medicaid, according to national health expenditure accounts.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official University of Phoenix document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
Request this one custom, free · All HCS 235 week samples · All courses