SickKids in Qatar - Responding to a Request for Proposal

In January 2005, the vice-president of International Affairs at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, must decide how to respond to a request for proposal from the Hamad Medical Corporation of Qatar. In order to reach its global mission of “Healthier Children, A Better World,” the Toronto hospital, which had an international reputation for excellence in pediatric medicine, had established an arm called SickKids International. In addition, it was anxious to find new ways to recover from an operating deficit caused by the aftershock of the SARS outbreak. Hamad Medical Corporation, a major state hospital medical supplier in Qatar, was looking for international centres that would want to partner with it in the development of what it hoped would become the best children's hospital in the Middle East. The vice-president understood the enormous benefits that the partnership had to offer but recognized the need for a comprehensive strategy to mitigate all of the associated risks, such as the difference in cultures between Canada and Qatar, the pressure on the Toronto hospital’s staff to make the project successful and the uncertain political and business environment in the Middle East. Should she recommend to her executive team that they go ahead with their first international request for proposal?

<ul><li>To develop an understanding of the opportunities and various challenges in globalizing health care from Western countries to developing countries.</li><li>To critically examine the benefits and risks of globalization to both the importing and exporting country.</li><li>To explore the difficulties surrounding cross-cultural leadership in the context of the globalization of health care.</li></ul>

• Globalization
• health care
• cross-cultural
• leading change
• Canada
• Qatar