The Healthcare Industry : A Fast Paced World

The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) six aims of quality provide an advantageous framework to progress the quality of care in the U.S.A. health care system. IOM developed six aims for improving to provide safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable patient care (Institute of Medicine, 2001). Organizations need to strategically plan to evolve in meeting IOM’s six aims and to remain a financially sound entity. Strategic planning involves defining the future and stipulating the measurement of achievement (Sare & Ogilvie, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to start the initial steps for creating a strategic plan in a healthcare organization, through describing and evaluating an unmet need, considering the mission, vision, and values, providing the background context, vision, strategic goal, and consider the broader issues.

Healthcare and health information technology (health IT) are undergoing transformative change at an unprecedented pace. Strategic planning has become a major discussion point among CIOs, CTOs, CMIOs, and IT Directors. Whether it is implementing enterprise-wide electronic health record (EHR) systems, working toward compliance with the “meaningful use” EHR Incentive Program, enabling patients’ involvement through PHRs, transitioning to ICD-10, establishing insurance exchanges, becoming an accountable care organization, or even deploying a medical home, healthcare executives are confronted with a confluence of high-priority initiatives.

The ever-changing environment in healthcare requires strategic planning teams to address a handful of specific critical issues that will lead to success in the long term. In an industry as diverse and large as health care, Scripps Mercy will face many challenges but will need to avoid the temptation during the environmental assessment phase of its strategic plan. Zuckerman (2012) states, "Failure to produce a limited number of issues to address in subsequent planning activities almost always dooms the strategic planning process" (p. 43), too often healthcare is riddled with issues; an effective environmental assessment will condense these concerns in a solid and clear way. All the new upcoming changes in healthcare reform and technology will have Scripps Mercy face many challenges in information management, their demographic served, and staff recruitment and development.

There are many challenges that are defining the future strategic direction of health care such as information technology advancements, access to health care, maintaining a skilled workforce, proposed health care reform and legislation, and rising costs. I will look at these challenges and how an organization may adapt its direction and strategies in accordance with these challenges.

Without strategic planning, several things can go wrong including missing out on great opportunities. Strategic planning is an organization’s outline to help achieve its purpose. Although strategic planning begins at the top of the pyramid, it is more effective when it is carry out as a whole among other in the organization. Having a good internal control system in place protects an organization from high risk, fraud, and more. Jackson Memorial Hospital has several weaknesses which are similar to its competitors and other health care organizations. For instance, Mount Sinai Medical Center one of Jackson Memorial’s competitors, encountered lack of strategic planning that led to many issues such as with readmissions, surgical complications,

Aetna is one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States; with more than $58 billion in revenue and servicing more than 46 million people, they are a leading provider of medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, and group life just to name a few (Aetna, 2015b). The core business for Aetna in 2014 was commercial managed care and health insurance products in the United States. This paper will focus on Aetna and provide a detailed SWOT analysis. In addition, key goals that can be used for strategic planning with be discussed along with defining Aetna’s competencies and competitive advantages.

Selecting the most appropriate strategic plan is essential for an organizations continuous growth and development. Specifically, looking at the health care industry, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a world renowned medical facility, that provides high quality health care services to their patients. This consists of everything from direct patient care to research studies. As a non-profit organization, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is still a revenue generating business. With that being said, as a business they are required to analyze various tendencies in order to make the best decision that is most beneficial for the organization, the patients and all other stakeholder’s. By identifying Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s

Strategic Planning: Due to the current issues, both internally and externally, the organization is facing, Dr. Townsend is challenged to prepare an action plan to implement the proposed strategy needed to restore the organization back to financial health and improve the morale among the physicians and support staff. Another course of planning Dr. Townsend will challenge is the organizations old structure into a way that all patients will be satisfied.

The health care environment is fast- paced and hectic, and delegation is an essential part of nurses’ work. When delegating, leaders and staff must master the tools of communication to ensure that nursing care is completed safely and that unit goals are met. Fostering effective communication is accomplished by using the elements of trust, respect, and empathy (Huber, 2014-a). For this post, I will discuss the issues of the power, conflict, communication, and delegation presented in the critical thinking exercise in chapter nine.

This paper will focus on the health-tech business and takes a look at Philips’ strategic plan, capacity plan, and how it implements these into its portfolio management process. I will be going over the program management plan and how projects are managed as well as identifying any conflicts in cost, schedule, or quality and how to resolve them. Additionally, there will be a change management plan that focuses on managing organizational and cultural changes. I will also create a resource utilization plan to analyze and plan resources.

For several decades health care has been tied to the economy and with the current downturn we see continued efforts to control and reduce over-head costs. Health care organizations in their effort to become more efficient and address changes in the industry have altered their strategic business plans. Lee & Alexander (1999) researched organizational change in hospitals and their survival, in this paper I hope to discuss their findings and add other examples to validate their conclusions.

In business there are strategies that need to be fulfilled. Starting a business or health care organization we need to use strategy planning. In the strategy planning of our business or health care organization we need to map out the mission, vision and goals that we want our business or health care organization to meet. My paper is going to be on the Veterans Health Administration strategy planning. This paper will review their internal and external assessments, competitive marketing analysis, identification of stakeholders, an overview and assessments of services provided, competencies and

Successful medical organizations have as their guiding principles a professionally stated purpose which encompasses and details their mission statement, vision statement, values statement, and broad strategic goals. The organizational structure is established on these statements, and the function of each department and the duties of each employee are based upon fulfilling the purpose of these statements. Additionally, these statements must encompass the various aspects of the organization and its stakeholders. As Moore, Ellsworth, and Haufman (2011) purport, “ Any organization planning as though it exists in a vacuum is ignoring factors critical for its survival” (p. 16). Without these guiding principles to serve as a direction for the

The present challenges for the healthcare industry are significant. With a population that is forever aging, escalating costs, and the unsure impact of the Affordable Care Act, healthcare providers are under tremendous pressure to meet the needs of their patients while maintaining or even reducing costs. One such organization feeling this pressure is BayCare which is a leading not-for-profit health care system that connects individuals and families to a wide range of services at 13 hospitals and hundreds of other convenient locations throughout the Tampa Bay and central Florida regions. Inpatient and outpatient services include acute care, primary care, imaging, laboratory, behavioral health, home care, and wellness. With over 3,100 practicing physicians and more than 58,500 surgeries performed annually, their budget for operating room supplies exceeds $80 million annually across all facilities. Morton Plant Hospital is faced with the challenge of reducing overall operating costs without sacrificing their high standards of patient care and safety. The hospital realized that surgical waste represented a huge opportunity to address. By providing visibility to information that was otherwise hidden, a case cart system would be able to track surgical materials issued, used, and returned; including between doctors, procedures, and locations. This could help the hospital to achieve a number of objectives including: guarantying that all material issued to the OR was accounted for

Having a clear vision is extremely important in order to accomplish goals in life and a well-defined strategy is essential in order to fulfill that vision, thereby, both visioning and strategic thinking go hand in hand. As Souba (2004) states that, “[v]ision without a strategy is a daydream; strategy without vision is a nightmare’” (p. 447). It is evident how this competency is essential in each and every sector, in my opinion; this competency will help in the betterment of healthcare sector as well. This paper will address the importance of having a clear strategy and vision pertaining to the healthcare sector and illustrating a case in the light of it.