One of the most useful and valid tools for guiding all levels of the organization is the strategic planning; its application ranges from small-scale organizations to large-scale organizations, including healthcare systems. The relevance of the strategic planning process an organization wants highly depends on the level the size of the unit, its level of complexity, as well as the differentiation of the service it provides. The Strategic Planning process is usually programmed systematically, rationally, and holistically such that it can integrate short, medium and long-term, hence creating for healthcare to focus on transformations that are relevant to only that moment, but also the future. Today, hospitals are facing various challenges in implementing strategic plans due to various reasons. This report will discuss some of the challenges the hospital systems are facing in implementing Strategic Planning, and how the challenges can be solved.
Strategic planning in healthcare is important for the successful profitability, expansions, and operations. Changes and shifts in health care affect almost every sector, including acute care hospitals, outpatient clinics, and long-term care facilities. Creating a strategic plan process is not a thing that can be done in only one session with the employees and the team leaders. It is a process that takes time, but the overall pay off results is significant, especially when done with the right team that has the well-being of the organizations (Eric & Yvonne, 2011). The success of a strategic plan is determined by the cooperation of the employees and the management in an organization.
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To start with, the healthcare industry in recent years have experienced tumultuous time. As a result of the passage of the Health Care Act, the healthcare system have received an influx of patients who are newly insured. In the eyes of the government and the general public, this is a great development. However, the health care system has not yet been equipped to handle the resulting significant demand it is receiving (Haux, Winter, Ammenwerth & Brigl, 2013). The healthcare system across is straining to manage the capacity across the country and as a result, it is receiving some rippling effects. Among the effects, the most significant is the impact the health care system is receiving on the cost of operation (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018). The ability to maintain balance in contained costs and consistently providing quality care to patients is hard to achieve and result in most of the challenges the healthcare is facing in strategic planning.
One of the main aims of the healthcare is to ensure that the health of the general public is improving, and people are not discouraged by the costly hospital charges and admissions. Therefore, to solve the above challenge, some hospital systems have come up with a strategic plan, whereby they are collecting data on the population they are servicing. These data include age, ethnicity, the rate of chronic diseases, payor mix, education, and social, economic status of the population (Haux et al., 2013). By use of these data, the hospital can be able to identify proactively the patients who are in need of what service, and instead of them coming to the hospital for services, they can be reached their regions and receive the necessary medical attention.
The second strategic planning challenge facing the healthcare systems is that trying to apply a new process to an already well-established infrastructure might turn to be difficult for the employees. Normally, changes are not well welcomed in any organization by the employees. Changes are scary. Thus, it is good to include all the employees in the development of the new process and then observe how each of them responds, or are adjusting to the new changes (Eric & Yvonne, 2011). To solve this challenge of scaring employees in the organization, leaders should be involved in the creation of a new strategic planning processing to prevent scaring and disrupting the productivity of the employees. This trick has worked in some organizations, whereby, the employees were involved in decision making regarding the strategic planning. This made them ready mentally and physically; they welcomed the new changes with an open hand. As a result, the productivity sector is not affected much as it would have if they were not kept aware of the changes.
The third strategic planning challenge is the issue regarding the cybersecurity. Cybersecurity has turned to be a significant challenge, not only in the healthcare industry but also in other industries. Today, most people are conversant with the new technology. Thus they can hack into the hospital systems and databases, mine the data, or perform whatever activity they want with the system. The information in healthcare systems is supposed to be confidential, and when an organization is unable to protect its patient’s information, then it is not the right place to get help. It is critical for the healthcare to pay attention of their patient’s information; this can be done by doing some collaboration with IT in a more strategic sense (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018). The leaders will ensure that they have done the necessary collaboration so that every department have received the technology and resources necessary to guarantee the security of data.
Some hospital organizations have managed to ensure total security in their data systems, and they can boost subscriber’s information confidentiality. This technology has been extended even in other hospital activities such as in supporting key management reporting and operational processes. Most hospitals around the world are embracing information technology and internet to improve their client’s data security, as well as improving their client's interface, and to reduce the overall cost of offering quality care (Eric & Yvonne, 2011). Despite being expensive to install technology and internet in the organization, the overall benefits brought with them is undoubted. Information technology can improve primary healthcare care in different areas, including communication between patients and physicians, keeping medical records, rapid access to information that is reliable for both patients and healthcare providers, and sharing information among healthcare workers (Haux et al., 2013).
In conclusion, the healthcare is one of the sectors that are experiencing very fast development, and as such, they are the one experiencing much strategic planning challenges. Even though there is much uncertainty about the future of the healthcare, some things seem like they are sure to us, things such as health management of the increasing population, accountable care, and integrated networks in clinics. Also, it can be observed that there is an inpatient shift to outpatient services. To ensure that they remain stronger, and relevant to the society, healthcare systems need a compass that is super good, a stronger rudder, and super strategic plan. When all factors are put into consideration while implementing the strategic plan, there will be a smooth flow of turn of events in healthcare, which will be welcomed by both the workers and the patients, thus improving on productivity.
References
Eric, G., & Yvonne, R. (2011). Strategic planning (pp. 117-158). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The Strategic Management of Healthcare Organizations . John Wiley & Sons.
Haux, R., Winter, A., Ammenwerth, E., & Brigl, B. (2013). Strategic information management in hospitals: an introduction to hospital information systems . Springer Science & Business Media.
