| Course | D916 MHA Capstone |
|---|---|
| Task | Task 3 |
| Paper type | Capstone presentation |
| Length | About 1,100 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 |
| School | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Program | Master of Healthcare Administration |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for D916 Task 3
Finishing Antibiotics at Home: A Capstone Presentation of the Business Case and Sustainability Plan for an Outpatient IV Antibiotic Program at a Composite Hospital
Student Name
Leavitt School of Health, Western Governors University
D916: MHA Capstone, Task 3
Course Instructor
Month Day, Year
Slide 1: The Patient in Bed 14
Medically ready to go home
Staying five more days for an IV antibiotic
Meanwhile, 14 admitted patients wait in the emergency department
Speaker notes: Good afternoon. Picture a patient in bed 14 on our orthopedic unit. His surgery went well, his fever is gone and he could go home today, except that he needs five more days of an IV antibiotic. So he stays. Downstairs, on an average weekday, 14 patients who have already been admitted are waiting in the emergency department for a bed. This presentation is about connecting those two facts, and I will ask you at the end to approve a program that does.
Slide 2: The Size of the Problem
610 patients last year stayed only for IV antibiotics
3,050 bed-days
About 8 beds occupied every day of the year
Speaker notes: We measured the problem in two steps. Case management delay codes identified every stay in which a patient was medically ready but remained for IV therapy, and a pharmacist and I reviewed a sample of charts to confirm the reason, which led us to trim the count by 10%. The result is 610 patients and 3,050 days, about eight beds occupied every day by patients who did not need a hospital bed. Because most of our payment is fixed by diagnosis, we absorb the cost of those days.
Slide 3: What Other Hospitals Do
Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy, OPAT
IV antibiotics at home, in clinic or in a nursing facility
Supervised by a hospital team
Speaker notes: Hospitals across the country and abroad solve this with OPAT programs. The remaining doses are given at home by a visiting infusion nurse, at an outpatient infusion chair or in a nursing home, and a hospital team keeps watch. National guidance from infectious diseases specialists lists what keeps these programs safe, starting with choosing the right patients, having a specialist involved, looking after the IV line and checking blood tests regularly (Norris et al., 2019).
Slide 4: The Evidence
Structured program with infectious diseases review
IV courses about 14 days shorter
Fewer adverse clinical outcomes; lower costs per patient
Speaker notes: The structure matters. When one hospital introduced a structured OPAT program with mandatory infectious diseases assessment, IV treatment ended about two weeks sooner on average, fewer patients had bad outcomes, specialists changed the antibiotic plan for more than a third of patients, and each patient cost less to treat (Manders et al., 2025). That is why we are proposing a hospital-led team, not simply a contract with a home infusion company.
Slide 5: Our Program
Medical director from infectious diseases
Two OPAT nurses, a pharmacist, a coordinator
Weekly OPAT clinic; start with orthopedics and medicine
Speaker notes: Our team is small: a physician from infectious diseases in charge, a pair of dedicated nurses, a pharmacist and one coordinator. Before discharge they find eligible patients and set up home or clinic infusion; afterward they read the weekly labs, handle line problems and hold a clinic once a week. We would start with the orthopedic and medicine services, which account for most of the 610 patients.
Slide 6: The Numbers
Ongoing cost: $620,000 a year
Benefit: about $2.2 million a year
Net: about $1.6 million a year; still positive at half the volume
Speaker notes: The program costs about $620,000 a year in staff, plus $150,000 to start. If 60% of the IV-only days shift to OPAT, we avoid about $1.2 million in variable inpatient cost, gain about $700,000 in contribution from admissions the freed beds allow and bill about $300,000 in clinic and infusion services, for roughly $1.6 million a year net. If only half that volume materializes, the program is still more than $450,000 ahead.
Slide 7: Alternatives We Rejected
Status quo: problem continues
More nursing facility transfers: limited beds, longer stays
Home infusion contract alone: no one monitoring
Speaker notes: We considered three alternatives. Doing nothing leaves the days and the boarding in place. Sending more patients to skilled nursing facilities is limited by bed availability, and for patients with substance use disorders it was associated with longer hospital stays and less engagement in addiction treatment afterward in one two-center study (Hawes et al., 2026). Outsourcing to a home infusion company alone would mean that once patients left, nobody at our hospital would own their care.
Slide 8: Keeping It Running
Funded in the operating budget from year two
Two physician leaders; cross-trained nurses
Built into the discharge huddle and the EHR
Speaker notes: Our plan for keeping the program alive follows a validated clinical sustainability tool, and the team will score itself on it every year to catch weak spots early (Malone et al., 2021). Three commitments matter most. The program moves into the care management operating budget in year two. Leadership has a named backup physician, and the nurses share skills with the vascular access team. And every patient on IV antibiotics is screened automatically through the discharge huddle and the EHR navigator.
Slide 9: How We Will Know
IV-only days avoided: 1,830 a year
Readmissions and complications: no worse than before
Net benefit reported to finance every year
Speaker notes: We will report five measures: IV-only days avoided, 30-day readmissions of OPAT patients, catheter complications and adverse drug events, net financial benefit and the annual sustainability score. Quality measures go to the quality committee quarterly, financial results to the finance committee annually, and a five-year evaluation to the board. If savings ever fall below costs, the oversight committee must bring a recovery plan rather than wait for a budget cut.
Slide 10: Risks
Catheter infections and drug reactions: weekly monitoring
Payer coverage: clinic-based option
Patients left out: pathway with addiction medicine
Speaker notes: The main clinical risks are catheter infections, clots and drug reactions, which weekly monitoring and a rapid response process address. Because insurers treat home infusion differently, the clinic option stays open for anyone whose plan will not pay for it at home. And we will build a pathway with our addiction medicine service so that patients with substance use disorders are not excluded by default.
Slide 11: The Decision We Are Asking For
Approve a two-year OPAT program
$150,000 start-up and $620,000 first-year operating budget
First report to this committee in six months
Speaker notes: Today we need three decisions: approval of a two-year OPAT program, a start-up budget of $150,000 and a first-year operating budget of $620,000, and your agreement that we report back in six months with the first results. The patient in bed 14 could be home tonight. Thank you, and I welcome your questions.
References
Hawes, A. M., Yanek, L. R., Buresh, M. E., Abdel-Galil, R., Bodnar, A., Falade-Nwulia, O. O., & Keller, S. C. (2026). Outcomes in skilled nursing facilities versus other locations in outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy among patients with substance use disorders. Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology, 6(1), e121. https://doi.org/10.1017/ash.2026.10364
Malone, S., Prewitt, K., Hackett, R., Lin, J. C., McKay, V., Walsh-Bailey, C., & Luke, D. A. (2021). The Clinical Sustainability Assessment Tool: Measuring organizational capacity to promote sustainability in healthcare. Implementation Science Communications, 2, Article 77. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43058-021-00181-2
Manders, I. G., Comello, D., Souverein, D., Euser, S., Herpers, B. L., Vetten, J., Kalpoe, J. S., Goeijenbier, M., & van Lelyveld, S. F. L. (2025). The impact of a structured outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) programme on quality of care, optimisation of antimicrobial use, and healthcare costs: A retrospective cohort study. Antibiotics, 14(11), 1103. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics14111103
Norris, A. H., Shrestha, N. K., Allison, G. M., Keller, S. C., Bhavan, K. P., Zurlo, J. J., Hersh, A. L., Gorski, L. A., Bosso, J. A., Rathore, M. H., Arrieta, A., Petrak, R. M., Shah, A., Brown, R. B., Knight, S. L., & Umscheid, C. A. (2019). 2018 Infectious Diseases Society of America clinical practice guideline for the management of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 68(1), e1-e35. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciy745
What the D916 Task 3 instructions ask
The third D916 task asks you to present your capstone project to an audience of leaders. You will usually summarize the challenge, the solution, the evidence, the financial case, the alternatives, the sustainability plan and the measures of success, with speaker notes or narration. The content must match Tasks 1 and 2. Graders want slides that carry one idea each, a story that moves from problem to decision, figures consistent with the earlier tasks, notes that supply the detail slides leave out and a clear request. Slides crowded with text from the paper fall short of the presentation aspects. Plan the deck for the time allowed, since a presentation that runs long loses the audience before the request.
How this D916 Task 3 example is built
The deck opens with a patient and a number, so the audience grasps the problem before any chart appears. Each following slide makes one point, with a short headline and a few words beneath it. The evidence slide names the kind of program research supports. The financial slide shows three figures only, and the notes give the arithmetic and the half-volume check. Rejected alternatives take one slide with a phrase each. Sustainability is compressed into three commitments and the framework used. The measures slide lists what leaders will see and when. The final slide makes the request. Speaker notes carry the detail, which keeps the slides readable from the back of a boardroom.
Where the D916 Task 3 rubric puts the marks
D916 Task 3 aspects are rated competent, approaching competence or not evident. A content aspect asks whether the challenge, solution, evidence, finances, alternatives and sustainability are all presented. A consistency aspect rewards figures that match the earlier tasks. An organization aspect looks for a logical flow toward a decision. A design aspect wants readable slides with one idea each. A delivery aspect asks for notes or narration that explain each slide. Graders notice when the request is stated plainly, and they expect sources to be cited on slides that present evidence or figures, with a reference slide at the end. Consistent slide design keeps attention on the content.
D916 Task 3 help: what sends it back
Capstone decks in D916 lose marks when slides are paragraphs from the paper. Keep one short headline per slide with a handful of supporting words, and let the notes hold everything else. Figures that differ from the business case are a second problem, so check each against Task 1. A deck that starts with background loses its audience; open with the problem. Missing sources are a third gap, since evidence and figures still need citations. Last, the deck ends without a request. Say what you want leaders to approve, because a capstone presentation is a decision meeting, not a report. Rehearse the timing before you record or submit.
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D916 Task 3 questions, answered
How many slides should D916 Task 3 have?
Follow your instructions and time limit. The sample uses about a dozen slides, each with one point, and relies on speaker notes for detail. Keep each slide readable at a glance.
Must the D916 presentation match Tasks 1 and 2?
Yes. The program, figures and measures should be the same, so leaders see one consistent project from business case to sustainability plan. Check each figure against the earlier tasks before submitting.
Should D916 Task 3 include speaker notes?
Yes, unless your instructions call for recorded narration instead. Notes carry the arithmetic, evidence and explanation that would crowd the slides. The slides themselves stay short. Graders read them closely.
How should a D916 capstone presentation open?
With the problem in human and numerical terms. The sample begins with one patient waiting only for IV antibiotics and the count of such patients last year.
Where can I find a free D916 Task 3 sample paper?
Every slide of the antibiotic program deck and its speaker notes appear above with commentary. Share your D916 business case and plan, and your first custom deck is prepared at no cost.