SWOT in the business world stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (Helms & Nixon, 2010). The first two, Strengths and Weaknesses, emanate from within the business entity and can be controlled. For instance, the type of employees to hire and the type of goods and services to offer to customers is controlled from within the business or organization. The last two, Opportunities and Threats are external and a business or an organization can only take advantage over opportunities and threats but cannot change them. SWOT analysis is important for an organization or a business because it helps in the evaluation of an existing or a new market. Moving forward with OKeene Municipal Hospital which intends to open a satellite health clinic in the rural areas of Blaine County, a SWOT analysis will be vital to predict the outcome of its operations in the new environment.
Extension of healthcare services provision to the rural areas of Blaine County by OKeene Municipal Hospital will be enhanced by the following strengths. First, OKeene Municipal Hospital has been in operation for over 60 years, and thus it has experience in healthcare service provision (OKeene Municipal Hospital, 2014). The long-term experience will impact healthcare service provision by the Hospital positively. Secondly, OKeene Municipal Hospital accepts insurance medical covers like Medicaid, Medicare, and Children’s Health Insurance Program. This will feature well for the hospital since over 80% of Blaine County residents have medical covers (City-data, 2019). One of the weaknesses that OKeene Municipal Hospital is likely to face is inadequate staffing. The hospital has slightly over 80 members of staff, which might pose a challenge when the satellite health clinic is opened (OKeene Municipal Hospital, 2014). Another weakness facing OKeene Municipal Hospital is that it has a bed capacity of 17 beds, which is inadequate to cater for the population of Blaine County.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
However, the rural areas have some opportunities which are likely to impact the project by OKeene Municipal Hospital positively. One of the opportunities in the rural areas that OMH is going to take advantage on is the unavailability of healthcare facilities in the county. The whole Blaine County has only two hospitals and two nursing homes (Oklahoma State Department of Health, 2015). Therefore, the possibilities of the intended satellite health clinic fetching a high market are high. Another opportunity for the satellite health clinic to do well in the rural areas is the high number of residents who have medical cover insurance in the county. The high number of residents with medical cover insurance will make healthcare services provision by the satellite clinic easy in terms of medical bills clearance.
Blaine County has a poverty level of 17.7% in the whole of the United States of America (UC Davis Center for Poverty Research, 2019). It will be a challenge for the people living under poverty to access medical care even when the satellite health clinic or mobile health clinic is opened in the rural areas. The OKeene Municipal Hospital will have to prepare on how to deal with patients who are unable to cater for their medical care bills. Another threat that is likely to hinder the smooth implementation of the project is access to the rural areas, especially the mountainous regions. Access will be a great threat to OKeene Municipal Hospital healthcare practitioners who will be deployed to work in the rural areas because not all regions will be easily accessible. Effective implementation of the project will require dependable means of transport which can be relied on to access even the most remote areas which cannot be accessed through normal means of transport.
References
City-data (2019). Blaine County, OK. Retrieved October 12, 2019; from http://www.city-data.com/
Helms, M., & Nixon, J. (2010). "Exploring SWOT Analysis – Where are we Now?" Journal of Strategy and Management. 3(3): 215-251.
OKeene Municipal Hospital & Medical Clinic (2014). Retrieved October 9, 2019; from https://www.okeenehospital.com/
UC Davis Center for Poverty Research (2019). What is the Current Poverty Rate in the United States? Retrieved October 11, 2019; from https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/find/results/date_authored:2019
