Assessment of the external environment in healthcare is increasingly being adopted to market healthcare providers, regulate and improve healthcare services provision. The exercise is imperative in enabling a healthcare organization adapt to changing public health demands that pertains public accountability (Zuckerman, 2012). External assessment achieves clinical effectiveness and leads to improved quality and safety. The external assessment enables identification of threats and opportunities in a hospitals external environment. The data obtained is crucial in formulation of general and specific healthcare plans to ensure organization sustainability and continuous financial viability. The study presents external environment assessment on New York-Presbyterian Hospital. The healthcare institution is based in New York City and specializes in offering inpatient, preventative and ambulatory healthcare services in various areas of medicine. The healthcare institution is renown in providing innovative and compassionate care and in offering medical education. As such, the hospital is affected by an array of forces from the external environment. The hospital can use intelligence gained to establish plausible future scenarios that would pave way for improvement of an organization’s strategic environment.
External Environmental Factors
Regulatory forces rank as one of the factor that affects New York-Presbyterian Hospital delivery of care and marketing efforts. Healthcare regulatory is dynamic implying that new regulations and reforms keep on being proposed coupled with amendment of existing rules. The regularity environment which New York-Presbyterian Hospital works in is overseen by a regulatory body, that is, the US department of Health and Human Services (HHS). New York-Presbyterian Hospital deliver of care and marketing is effected by regulations such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Medicare Act, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act 2010, Health Quality Improvement Act and the Patient Safety Act of 1996. The hospital has to strictly adhere to the regulations in the pursuit of healthcare provision and in its marketing efforts. The tangled web of regulations creates a complex environment which New York-Presbyterian Hospital must follow when administrating care and when marketing the organization to prospective clients (Ng, Leung, Johnston & Cowling, 2013). Failure to adhere to the regulations would adversely affect the hospital’s operations and would risk cancellation of operating license and likely penalties.
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Competition from healthcare organizations offering similar services is a second external factor that affects care delivery and marketing efforts in New York-Presbyterian Hospital. New York City is served by other hospitals such as Mount Sinai Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center and Lenox Hill Hospital. The health centers provides health services that are similar to those offered by New York-Presbyterian Hospital. When designing its marketing efforts, New York-Presbyterian Hospital has to be innovative and should consider costing of its services to lure clients and gain a competitive edge over rival hospitals in New York City. The competitive force exerts severe pressure on New York-Presbyterian Hospital in respect to healthcare pricing, margins and profitability. The hospital has to engage in competitive intelligence through contionous monitoring to collect competition information on the local healthcare offerings.
Market forces rank as a third factor that affect New York-Presbyterian Hospital healthcare delivery and marketing efforts. The hospital is affected by supply and demand of healthcare influenced by factors such as healthcare consumer expectations, aging demographics in the US, health insurance, advances in medical care and dynamics in patient provider relationship (Thomas, Richard, Calhoun & Michael, 2007). The market forces shape New York-Presbyterian Hospital offerings. To survive the market forces, the hospital ought to improve quality of healthcare services, hire competent healthcare physicians and improve its relationships with patients (Ginter, Duncan & Capper, 2012). Failure to improve quality would make consumers (patients) switch to other hospitals in New York City. In designing marketing efforts, New York-Presbyterian Hospital ought to understand variation of market forces and tailor make its marketing in a manner that addresses prevailing conditions.
Technology is a critical external factor that impact New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s care delivery and marketing efforts. Technology is a key driving force that informs improvement in healthcare. Healthcare technological environment in New York City is affected by changes and recent innovation which New York-Presbyterian Hospital ought to integrate (Van Wijngaarden, Scholten & van Wijk, 2012). In the hospital, the level of care and success of marketing is affected by ability of New York-Presbyterian Hospital to utilize different technological tools in research and treatment. To ensure improvement in delivery of care, New York Hospital ought to integrate recent technologies such as robotic surgery, virtual reality, 3-D printing, smart inhalers, health wearables, wireless brain sensors, precision medicine among others (Ginter et al., 2012). Incorporation of the aforementioned technological tools would improve the New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s quality of healthcare delivery, reinforce relationships with patients, reduce medical errors and increase patient safety (Shaw, 2004). Success in marketing of its healthcare services depends on the ability to employ technological tools in advertisement for example social media advertising.
Assumptions about the future
Regarding regulatory factors, New York-Presbyterian Hospital makes an assumption that there will be few or no other healthcare reforms which will drastically affect ability of the hospital to offer quality care. The healthcare center assumes that any healthcare regulations that will be enacted in future will favour and enhance delivery of care and marketing efforts rather than impede the hospital’s functionality. Regarding competitor forces, New York-Presbyterian Hospital holds an assumption that it will offer quality healthcare services consistently and that the hospital will have a competitive edge over rival hospitals in New York City. The hospital assumes that customers will not switch to other healthcare provider in future but will remain loyal. The hospital makes an assumption that its relationships with customers will remain close and drastically improving in future. The hospital assumes that it will have the capacity to integrate technological tools in healthcare and will be able to leverage on the tech advancement in healthcare to improve care delivery and enhance its marketing efforts.
Discussion of critical issues facing the organization
One of the critical issues affecting New York-Presbyterian Hospital is a more difficult and complex regulatory environment. For example, the hospital is apprehensive about the implications that would result due to implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Rising drug costs is a critical issue which may affect New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s delivery of care. The high drug prices puts a strain on the hospital’s budget thereby limiting diversification efforts and ability to channel funds into other areas for development and in support of innovation. Insufficient funding is an issue of concern that affects healthcare care provision. The hospital experiences insufficient funding which constrains its ability to continuously improve quality of healthcare.
Threats
Aging of oncology physicians; the threat may overwhelm the hospital’s oncology care system.
Competitor hospitals; hospitals in New York City offering similar services threaten survival of New York-Presbyterian Hospital. The threat puts price pressures and makes its hard to increase market share.
Government control and regulations.
Old and outdated healthcare infrastructure and systems
Workforce turnover
Opportunities
New treatment strategies; New York-Presbyterian Hospital can design new treatment approaches and execute them in delivery of healthcare.
New technology offers opportunity to improve care delivery and increase market share.
Development of new clinical trials; the hospital can delve in new trials on agents and combination of agents for healthcare improvement.
New unexploited healthcare markets.
Resolving barriers to healthcare access; finding solutions to hindrances affecting healthcare serves as an opportunity for an increased market share.
References
Ng, K. B., Leung, G. K., Johnston, J. M., & Cowling, B. J. (2013). Factors affecting implementation of accreditation programmes and the impact of the accreditation process on quality improvement in hospitals: a SWOT analysis. Hong Kong Medical Journal .
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Capper, S. A. (2012). Keeping strategic thinking in strategic planning: macro-environmental analysis in a state department of public health. Public Health , 106 (4), 253-269.
Thomas, Richard, Calhoun & Michael (2007) Marketing Matters: A Guide for Healthcare Executives. ACHE Management Press.
Shaw, C. (2004). The external assessment of health services. World Hospitals and Health Services , 40 (1), 24-27.
Van Wijngaarden, J. D., Scholten, G. R., & van Wijk, K. P. (2012). Strategic analysis for health care organizations: the suitability of the SWOT ‐ analysis. The International journal of health planning and management , 27 (1), 34-49.
Zuckerman, A. (2012). Healthcare Strategic Planning. Third Edition, Health Administration Press.
