Strategic planning is a process carried out by an organization in achieving the vision of the organization in an organized step by step process to achieve that future. It defines the direction and formulates a strategy by making decisions to allocate resources needed to pursue the strategy. A contingency plan on the other hand is viewed as an alternative that can be taken in case the plan in course does not materialize or there arise unexpected outcomes (VanVactor, 2017). With a strategic plan and contingency plan in place, the possibility of success of the organization is high. This article looks into strategic planning and contingency planning in healthcare organization.
The name of the healthcare organization is Charina Hospital. The mission statement of this organization is to be the transformation the society needs through providing the best healthcare services, taking social responsibility and acting without compromise. This mission statement envisions the short-term goals of Charina Hospital. The declaration to offer best services possible ensures the workers in this hospital strive to do better now and always. It also allows no room for anyone to lose focus of the goals of the hospital for the future by confessing to do best without compromise. Through the mission statement, all the stake holders have standards to meet and objectives to fulfil in the near future.
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The vision statement of this hospital is through unity, Charina Hospital aspires to be the national leader in health care through investing in the people, improving quality of care, offering affordable healthcare, being a caring partner and striving to advance the wellbeing of the people. This vision guides Charina Hospital in achieving the long-term goals of this organization (Gulati et al., 2016). By putting the needs of customers ahead, the hospital hopes to transform the lives of the people. The unity of all the stakeholders in this hospital is expected to propel the hospital to a whole new level. By being a caring partner, the hospital hopes to satisfy both the workers and its customers.
The values that the hospital lives by include respect, integrity, innovation, compassion, excellence and self-drive. Through respect, all workers are expected to honor the rights of the patients to privacy and confidentiality. They are also expected to understand and value the diversity and differences of both fellow workers and their patients. They are also expected to listen, positively accept critics, value customer feedback and deliver timely service to their customers. Integrity commands them to do the right thing, be honest in their service and focus on delivering the best for their patients. They are also expected to respect time and be at the right place at all time. Innovation requires them to seek new ways in which they can deliver better care services for their patients. Compassion requires them to treat their patients, families and fellow workers with empathy and kindness. Handle all patients and their families with caution and connect with each of them at a personal level. Involve the patients and their families in making critical decisions involving them or their patients. Offering the best service to the patients and working around the clock to improve performance promotes excellence. A self-driven worker thirsts for improvement and never gets into a comfort zone.
Action Plan for 3-5 Years
Improve performance and offer a learning environment.
This action plan will be achieved through educating staff and physicians on today’s healthcare environment. It will also include setting up performance standards that are common for all. Creating an award winning program and recognition events for best performance among the staff will also help entice the staff to improve their service. Developing and online platform that can offer remote consultation services for patients and their families will help improve service delivery. Offering vaccination services for all staff members at no charge reduces the chances of sick leaves for the staff in the hospital. The implementation of a common learning system accessible online will make staff to learn on new advancements in the healthcare industry.
Integration.
Integrating various departments to have a central command will ensure smooth flow of command and equitable allocation of available resources. Ensure all the staff strive to understand the vision of the hospital and strive to meet the set goals. Coming up with a common approach when integrating various departments in Charina Hospital will ensure uniformity in transition. Ensure unity in service among all the hospital departments.
Patient-centered care.
Ensure the hospital staff are well qualified and understand the expectations of both the hospital and their patients. Come up with clear guidelines that should be followed by every department in ensuring patient-centered care is achieved. Bring on patient advocates who will educated the staff on the expectation of the new system of patient care. Teach the staff and the physicians to show appreciation to their patients by teaching them to thankful to the customers during their interactions. Teach the staff to go above and beyond the patient’s requirements.
Quality improvement.
Ensure continued improvement through training and development among staff members. This can also be achieved through implementing learning programs for leaders who in turn educated their subordinates.
Infrastructural development.
Allocate more resources on the development and building of new branches as need arise. Build more laboratory rooms and equip them with the necessary appliances for smooth operation. Repair the perimeter wall by electing a permanent wall around the hospital premises.
Market growth.
Regularly revise the market strategy analysis and constantly evaluate the available opportunities for development and collaborations. Allocate resources to a specific social media department that implements online presence strategies of the hospital such as ads and search engine optimization to ensure responsiveness of the hospital website. Allocate more people on the online customer care platform to ensure quick service delivery for those who need remote consultation services. It is also important to come up with a consistent branding strategy for the hospital. Set up an automated review system to make sure the hospital has constant feedback from the patients. It is also important to build doctor referrals which will bring new customers. Constant auditing of the front desk will ensure consistent flow of customers to avoid loss of available opportunities.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Advanced medical equipment;
Charina Hospital has access to new and advanced medical equipment for various departments. This has made it easy to do diagnosis and perform various operations in the hospital (Miyake, 2019). The equipment has also reduced the workforce pressure as they make work easier reducing the number of staff needed to perform various tasks in the hospital.
Qualified and dedicated medical personnel;
Charina Hospital workforce is qualified and are hardworking people who are guided by the values of the hospital. The selection process of these staff members is intensive and ensures they take only best of the best. The interaction with the patients leaves them satisfied and ensures quality service delivery.
Available area for expansion;
The hospital has a huge area of expansion offering it an opportunity to advance structurally. With its huge piece of land, it is able to add more facilities in time of need. This also offers the hospital an opportunity to dream and venture into land intensive opportunities.
Consumerism;
With increased consumerism, the patient’s attitude to get involved in matters involving their healthcare has made service delivery easier. This has eliminated the chances of patients declining treatment due to confusion because the hospital is transparent in its healthcare costs.
Good infrastructure;
The availability of enough and good infrastructure has attracted more customers in the hospital. It has also reduced the costs of maintenance of the hospital. It has also promoted customer satisfaction in the service delivered in the hospital.
Team work;
The ability of the hospital staff to work together has enabled smooth service delivery. It has also made it easy to come up with solutions through cooperation among the stakeholders in the hospital.
High quality patient care;
The hospital offers high quality service to the customers. The hospital has adopted the patient-centered care that has ensure success in service delivery.
Readily available ambulance services;
The hospital has multiple ambulances that are always at the service of the customers. This service has been a critical asset in delivery of health services and has help prevent deaths in various occasions such as during labor facilitating safe childbirth.
Coverage of all insurance cards;
Charina Hospital accepts all hospital insurance cards making it easy for service delivery. The customers are satisfied in being able to pay for their services in any preferred payment system.
Weaknesses
Insufficient staff training;
With different advancements, the healthcare industry keeps evolving. This makes it difficult to keep training the staff constantly as it becomes expensive. The strained resources do not also allow for frequent training of the staff members
Insufficient resources;
The resources of the hospital are usually strained.
Outdated facilities;
The changes in equipment and technologies keep outdating the various equipment every now and then.
Delayed departmental communication;
The complex structure of the hospital makes communication a challenge every now and then.
System delays;
The hospital system buffers from time to time delaying the service delivery.
Staff management problems;
The management of staff is a problem from time to time due to the vast and complexity of the hospital setup.
Staff shortages and burnout;
The healthcare industry has seen a shortage of workforce in the recent past. There available few workers have burnout from being overworked.
Long waiting time in check in and check out;
With delays in the system, there are challenges in check in and check out on various departments.
Opportunities
Evolution of different healthcare programs;
There are emerging opportunities from various healthcare programs such as mobile based healthcare (Sarfo-Frimpong et al., 2017).
Technology acceleration;
There are multiple advancements in the healthcare industries made day and night in efforts to make this industry a success (Johnson, 2017).
Increased elderly population;
The population of the aged has been growing in the recent times and the healthcare industry has the opportunity to take care of them. This means new market opportunities as time goes by.
Volunteer programs;
Communities have increased involvement in volunteer programs that have help ease the workforce pressure in various healthcare organizations.
Collaborations;
Many healthcare organizations are working together to bring success in this industry in various sectors such as research.
Community education programs;
The education of the public in matters healthcare has ease the work of the healthcare industries in various levels. They also help patients learn to be more involved in their healthcare issues.
Automated feedback system;
The automated feedback system helps the staff in developing a personal relationship with the patients and learn their needs.
Emergence of new healthcare organizations;
The development of new healthcare industries has also reduced the patient pressure in the hospital making it easier to offer quality service to the available customers.
Threats
Workforce change;
The trend of shortage of healthcare workers is thread to this hospital.
Technological advancements;
Some technological advances have become a challenge in the healthcare industry is such areas as data privacy due to such issues as hacking.
Supply chain disruption;
The disruption of supply in the healthcare industry is a threat to the continued performance of the hospital.
Healthcare consumerism;
The involvement of the customers in the understanding of pricing means intensified attention which will be a challenge due to shortages in staffing.
Government regulations;
The possibility of creation of new policies will require the hospital to invest more in the changes.
Administration transformation;
The possibility of transformation in the hospital will mean a destabilization of the hospital performance.
Political and economic interferences;
The possibility of political and economic interferences threatens the performance of this hospital.
Pressure from healthcare cost reductions;
The healthcare industry has been under pressure to reduce the cost of healthcare which means reduced income from the hospital.
Contingency Planning Process
The first stage is identifying events that would be both beneficial but also could be probable problem significantly affecting the organization (Hiller et al., 2015). In a surgical center these may include events relating to staff, medication or diagnosis.
The second is pointing out times when these events are likely to occur. In an outpatient surgical scenario, this may be identified as times when physicians attempt performing major procedures on the patient.
Third is to assess the impact of these events. In an outpatient set up, this may be tricky to assess as the patient leaves the premises after treatment but time of event would determine this.
Fourth is to come up with contingency plans. Being ready will access to referral would make it easy to handle the situation.
Fifth step is to assess he impacts of these plans. These plans should be quantified and be budgeted for in the plans.
Sixth step is to keep an eye on early signals of these events. The use of intensive care systems and qualified staff may be able to identify these signals in time.
The final step is to let everybody understand their role in the plan and be prepared. Ensuring the staff involved in this setup is qualified makes sure they understand their role in the contingency plan and have the required skills to implement this plan efficiently.
Reference
Gulati, R., Mikhail, O., Morgan, R. O., & Sittig, D. F. (2016). Vision statement quality and organizational performance in US hospitals. Journal of Healthcare Management, 61(5), 335-350.
Hiller, M., Bone, E. A., & Timmins, M. L. (2015). Healthcare system resiliency: The case for taking disaster plans further—Part 2. Journal of business continuity & emergency planning, 8(4), 356-375.
Johnson, T., (2017). Strategic Planning in the Healthcare Industry. Balanced Scorecard Institute , retrieved from https://balancedscorecard.org/strategic-planning-in-the-healthcare industry/
Miyake, D., (2019). Hospital Strategic Planning: What Should You Include in Your 5-Year Plan? Clear Point Strategy , retrieved from https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/hospital strategic-planning-5-year-plan/
Sarfo-Frimpong, J., Oduro, G., Forson, P. K., & Bonney, J. (2017). Emerging Mobile Health (mHealth) in KATH ED: Assessing its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT ANALYSIS) among Healthcare Workers. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , 32(S1), S38-S38.
VanVactor, J. D. (2017). Healthcare logistics in disaster planning and emergency management: A perspective. Journal of business continuity & emergency planning, 10(2), 157-176.
