Case Study 6-1 SIBLING RIVALRY: AN EDITORIAL le is a sad state of affairs when the leadership of our town's two hospitals, Memorial and Community, cannot stop comper- ing with each other and come together for the benefit of the community by building a comprehensive women's health center. The self-interest of these two hospitals appears more important than the welfare of our women. Neither hospital has the resources to fund a first class program but together they can build the building, get the equipment, and hire the staff. While we certainly recognize that each institution has it own culture, policies, and financial needs, we also believe that the community comes first. Our position is clear: First, find a neutral name--you don't have to argue over whether it should honor your respective board presidents. Second, focus more on recruiting quality staff whose allegiance is to the Center and its programs, not whether they should be employees of Memorial or Community. And finally, get off the dime: Your organizational sibling tivalry is delaying medical care to our women! Assignment: Assume you work for Memorial and have been assigned the task of writing a response to the editorial. Additional information: 1. Your board chairman wants his name on the center and is willing to donate $1 million. To your knowledge, no one from Community is willing to donate more than $50,000 to the project. 2. The pay scales are virtually the same at the two hospi- tals although Memorial has a significantly better fringe benefit package 3. Many Memorial employees started their careers at Community. Rarely does a Memorial employee seek employment at Community. (continues 4. Memorial and Community are similar sized hospitals but Memorial has historically been the institution used by the wealthier members of the community and has an endowment 10 times the size of Community's 5. Although there is some limited overlap of medical staffs , generally there is a poor relationship between the medical staffs of the two hospitals. 6. One concern of the Memorial leadership is that this project may result in a loss of referrals and inpatient days at Memorial 7. The genesis of this project was a grant from a local foundation and the interest by the CEOs of the two institutions in a more cooperative relationship. Both CEOs thought that this was a natural project to bridge the historic suspicions and animosities between the institutions and their boards