Strategic Planning in Healthcare
Q1
Based on the comments by the previous CEO of the hospital, I would approach the new position with an aim to improve and promote better health qualities for the people. I would not take the advice of the CEO and would ensure I work towards making a difference in the hospital. I would ensure that I work closely with the assistant administrators to enhance the quality of healthcare in the community hospital. Reaching out to the community and getting feedback would be one step in ensuring that the hospital understands the healthcare needs of the community. Getting ideas and recommendations on how to improve the services will maintain efficient services to the community. I believe that the fact that the community doesn’t appreciate nor support the hospital is because it doesn’t deliver the required services. Letting the assistant administrators handle everything and leaving out the CEO would leave out the most crucial person with capabilities to bring change. Helping out the community would be my priority, and reducing the complaints would be one of the milestones in my career. I would make sure that I run the hospital in the frontline and fully understand the needs of the people working towards fulfilling them. Being a CEO allows me to speak to stakeholders who can provide the hospital with all the necessary resources to build and improve the hospital. I would ensure that I hold meetings with the various stakeholders in designing the best methods to enhance quality healthcare services in the hospital.
Q2
To proceed with the competition analysis, I would include gathering data, information analysis, and processing its strategic significance. Data collection would mainly involve primary data sources such as interviews, surveys, and observation, which will create a better perspective on the existing competitors. Competitor analysis would be aimed at determining the health care competitors in the service area i.e., the geographic area in which the hospital is located (the East Coast) from which it gets the majority of the patients. Understanding the competitors in the service involves identifying the vulnerabilities of the competitors, evaluation of the impact of the hospital’s strategic actions on the specific competitors, and identification of the potential actions the competitors might take that would jeopardize the position of the community hospital in the market. Competition analysis would involve understanding the competitive advantage of the hospital in terms of cost advantage or differentiation from other health care providers. I would assess how unique the five major health systems in the hospital are and the price it offers compared to the competitors. Offering relatively lower prices for differentiated services and products in the hospital would create a cost-competitive edge. Due to the changing health care industry, understanding the competitiveness issues will ensure that the hospital makes strategic decisions. The moves and countermoves of the competitors in the service remain essential in reducing costs and increasing efficiency in the hospital. Understanding the technological advantages of the competitors ensures that hospital adjusts accordingly to stay competitive in the technologically driven health system.
Q3
The creation of a strategic plan for the emergency medical services (EMS) program is essential to ensure that the communities receive a high level of competence, rapid response, and receive emergency vehicles that are well equipped with modern medical technology. Preparing a strategic plan for the program would involve ensuring that the leadership of the hospital is committed to a strategic plan. The leaders of the hospital, such as the CEO and the physical medical director, should acknowledge the need for a fundamental change in initiating the EMS program. I would ensure that the plan is created by holding meetings with all the stakeholders and making occasional follow-ups to monitor the progress of the plan. The process would involve a series of meetings with the hospital leaders and the field personnel. In consultation with the hospital’s leadership, the best work plan for the hospital would be developed. The steps involved in the strategic planning process would include understanding the mission statement of the hospital, realize the strategic goals, structure the performance objectives and the implementation of the strategic plan.
References
Andersson, H., Granberg, T. A., Christiansen, M., Aartun, E. S., & Leknes, H. (2020). Using optimization to provide decision support for strategic emergency medical service planning–Three case studies. International journal of medical informatics, 133, 103975.
Bettinelli, A., Cordone, R., Ficarelli, F., & Righini, G. (2014). Simulation and optimization models for emergency medical systems planning. J Emerg Manag, 12(4), 287-301.
Gaynor, M. (2007). Competition and quality in health care markets. Foundations and Trends® in Microeconomics, 2(6), 441-508.
Silva, P. M. S., & Pinto, L. R. (2010, December). Emergency medical systems analysis by simulation and optimization. In Proceedings of the 2010 winter simulation conference (pp. 2422-2432). IEEE.
Woolhandler, S., & Himmelstein, D. U. (2007). Competition in a publicly funded healthcare system. Bmj, 335(7630), 1126-1129.