The goal of this assignment is for you to create a healthcare entity case that could be used to teach someone financial concepts, tools, and techniques about a significant financial situation at that entity.

Section 1

Section 1A: Problem statement: 

A problem statement and the introduction are synonymous. In it, one states the thesis of the paper. There are two parts, the general and the specific. It depends on your writing style whether you present the general problem first and then the specific problem or start with the specific problem and then show how it fits within the general problem. For example, let us say that I am working on a case on clinics. I could first talk about the shortage of practitioners (general problem) and then move into the role of clinics in providing primary care for non-life-threatening ailments and routine well person care (specific problem). I could also start with a discussion of how clinics fit within the primary care profession (specific) and then show how that helps with the revenue and costs of the overall system (general).

Neither way is preferred - it just depends on your writing style and, in my opinion, the issue. Sometimes I start general and move to the specific, and sometimes I start with the specific and move to the general. I like to start with whichever will grab the reader's (the reviewers and journal's editor) attention.

The problem statement is your opening paragraph. You can think of it as the abstract of the paper.

Section 1B: Presentation of the issues

This is a crucial part of the paper because it sets up the Q&A in the last section. It presents the information that the reader will use to answer questions. For the clinic example, I would now discuss a specific clinic in Canyon. In this section, you present the information needed to answer the questions.

In this section, you present the theories/concepts that the case addresses. You might have introduced them in your problem statement, but now you provide more detail to the reader. You want to include tables and charts to convey information to the reader. There is no need to use valuable word space when a table/chart conveys the information quickly. All the information needed to solve the questions are presented in the case before the Q&A. A common mistake by students is not giving the data to solve the case in the case but to have the data magically appear in the answer. Another common mistake by students is to have needed information or assumptions magically appear in the answer.

The Q&A uses the information from the presentation of issues.