The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
Collaboration and teamwork spirit in classrooms sat a stage or reminded me that everyone, including my co-workers makes the work successful.
Prior to my internship, I learned from Professor Farida Shark that our communication linear should go beyond Patient-Centered communication factor and that, including responding to emotions, exchanging information, making a decision, fostering. These concepts helped me explore the psychometric qualities of a different scenario in my daily-life communication, especially patients with different diagnostics. In fact, through an efficient communication, I was able to understand how a health care leader can withstand the system (market) environment. In the Strategic Management of Healthcare Organization class, I learned interesting Theories that underlying ideas in clear, precise and concise way. One theory is that communicating raises the equivocal in sender and receiver regardless between individual or in organizational culture and networks. This can be assumptions, values, norms, and behavior. Second, through the mission statement of organizations such as healthcare effective communication is a better way of connecting the organization with the external environment (Ginter et al. , 2013). Reading different organizations’ mission statements, I understand that purpose through mission statement delivers organization current state and forecast strategies to meet the goal; this is also a better way of marketing. In addition, Professor Vahidy Tamina extrapolates that the central elements of a mission statement are stakeholders, provider, development, patient (customer) and the environment. She also went to say that the approach communicating purpose is an implement for the organization uniqueness The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
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Strategic management is the process in which the top management in a company or organization formulates and implements major goals on behalf of the company owners. This is mainly done by consideration of the resources available at the organization’s disposal and the internal and external environmental factors under which the company exists and competes with other companies (Cole, 1997). For the healthcare providers that are facing financial challenges in the sector, consolidation and cooperation seems to the new way out. Various healthcare providers throughout New Yolk city are merging with other healthcare providers so as to ensure that they survive the harsh economic times. The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
Louis practice. While the large healthcare systems enjoy a positive financial performance, the smaller healthcare systems faces a financial constrain. The smaller community hospitals with fewer resources faced financial turmoil as others were forced to merge with other so as to develop financial stability. Others who could not merge with others were forced to close down. In Brooklyn many hospitals face d a serious financial crisis. Others healthcare facilities were closed down due to lack of funds as others were closed down due to bankruptcy, for example Interfaith Health Care that was closed down as a result of bankruptcy. Mergers and acquisitions continued to dominate the market. The acquisition of Sound Shore Health System by Montefiore Medical Center that took place in November 2013 made a very remarkable change as far as acquisitions were concerned. Montefiore also acquired New Yolk State Westchester Squire in Medical Center in Bronx.
As Peter Drucker indicated, “The statement, ‘This is what we are here for,’ must eventually become the statement, ‘This is how we do it. This is the time span in which we do it. This is who is accountable.’ This is, in other words, the work for which we are responsible.” 5 A critically important responsibility of the health care organization’s leadership is to carefully articulate its strategy to the unit managers. Unit managers should be provided guidance or strategy statements regarding their responsibility to change or maintain the scope of their respective areas. These managers, in turn, are obligated to continue the communication by articulating the manner in which each unit is expected to contribute to service delivery or support services as well as adaptive, market entry, and competitive strategies. Unit manager action plans, in aggregate, represent the implementation plan for the organization.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
The role of strategic management in health care institutions is to set objectives and measure the success. The strategic management enables measurement of progress in an organization. The process acts as a platform that directs the organization forward (Muller, Bezuidenhout & Jooste, 2006). Second, strategic management decisions and actions play a critical role in determining long-term performances of a healthcare organization. A health care organization that employs strategic management processes experience a successful spell compared to those without (Hunger, Wheelen, Hoffman & Bamford, 2015). Besides, a health care institution does not only benefit from the outcome produced from strategic management process but from the process itself. Due to the dynamic natures of the environment, the flexibility of the strategic management allows healthcare organizations to respond to unpredictable changes that they might encounter. Third, with a strategic management, healthcare institutions can take advantage of the available opportunities that provide resources, clear purpose, and commitment. Similarly, strategic management helps healthcare institutions to overcome challenges and successfully maintain an efficient business operation in the long-run.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
There are many academic definitions, as well as others which, although not academic, have been applied successfully by those employing them.1 This demonstrates that what matters is the importance of the concept and idea behind the definition, rather than the definition itself.
Strategic planning is the systematic and organized process whereby an organization creates a document indicating the way it plans to progress from its current situation to the desired future situation. It is the set of decision-making criteria and the decisions taken and implemented by an organization to definitively and permanently guide its activities and structure.
We would like to highlight 2 important aspects:
• First, it is assumed that the unit of production is not the individual but the organization. There is still a long way to go before it is fully recognized that a health professional working alone, even with sufficient material resources available, cannot solve all the challenges that arise in the current healthcare setting.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
• Second, SP has a clear transformational purpose: a) it identifies the current characteristics specific to the organization and the setting in which it operates; b) it generates a vision of how the organization wishes to be in the future; and c) it also defines the roadmap and actions required to change the organization’s current situation to the desired future situation.
The following could serve as an academic definition of SP: “A proactive, structured process implemented by organizations consisting of the dynamic use of specific selected external opportunities that engage and develop internal competencies with the aim of fulfilling the organization’s mission and creating value for its stakeholders”.2
An alternative definition could be “A set of processes carried out to identify the future desired by the organization and to develop guidelines for making the decisions leading to such a future. When an organization behaves reliably and consistently over time, it can be said to have a strategy. The strategy is a means that the organization chooses in order to move from its current situation to a desired situation in the future”.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
The term “strategic” has 2 components that should be highlighted. The first refers to the decisive importance4 that should be placed on anything considered to have a strategic role. This role is frequently conferred on trivial matters, which should be avoided to prevent misuse of the term. Secondly, the term “strategic” should only be associated with the medium- and long-term future (3 years or more) in contrast to the term “operational”, which applies to a time horizon of 1 year or less. “Strategic” denotes a highly substantial issue that cannot be associated with the short term.
Why Should Healthcare Organizations Use Strategic Planning? Does it Matter?
There are 5 indicators that, in combination, would suggest the need for SP.5
• Increasingly informed, demanding and nonloyal clients (with the capacity to choose). If we assume that patients are the only clients of a health organization (HO), it seems obvious that in the future the HO will be treating patients who are increasingly better informed, aware of their rights, demanding, and with a growing capacity to choose their healthcare provider, a decision that has consequences for financing the HO.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
• Increasingly professional and skilled competitors. The system of resident physicians, access to updated knowledge, and continuous training have led to the following: a) it is increasingly easy to find highly qualified trained professionals outside the major centers of large cities; and b) the high level of specialization and excellence among these professionals is increasingly widespread.
• Limited resources for production. This factor needs little explanation, and even less in times of severe economic crisis. A possible response to this situation is the increased obligation to allocate resources on a rational basis, allowing only the best and most efficient HOs to remain.
• Focus is shifted from the product or service to the client. The focus is no longer solely on the quality of the product or service, but also on how this is transferred to the client and their experience. HOs no longer simply focus on carrying out the processes to the best of their ability, but on achieving patient satisfaction and obtaining the best results possible. What matters is not only what, but how.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
• Size and complexity of the HO. Increases in the size of the population, their needs, and the diagnostic and treatment options offered has led to physical growth in the size of HOs and increased organizational complexity. A clinical service may already be too large a productive unit, and decomposing it into highly complex subunits may have to be considered. Another source of complexity arises from the need to act in collaboration with primary care in relation to a range of diseases, especially chronic ones.
All these circumstances clearly affect HOs, immersing them in an environment of constant and sudden change both in their external and internal circumstances, and those of their clients. In these circumstances, SP is a fully applicable tool that is both useful and relevant to the HO. If SP is not conducted, then in a few years HOs could become irrelevant or even cease to exist.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
Advantages, Drawbacks and Errors
Advantages
SP is a rational process that aims to bring the future closer and allows us to both study and conduct simulations of the future. The process can reveal previously hidden opportunities or threats,6 providing the option to act on them early. Strategic planning establishes a clear and explicit framework with criteria for making day-to-day decisions and identifying fragmentary and unaligned choices or personal value judgments, all of which facilitates and simplifies managerial decision-making. The development of SP encourages the participation and commitment of the entire HO in achieving the planned results, thus becoming an important element in institutional cohesion. Finally, an organization that has good SP and applies it consistently offers a serious and credible external image (corporate reputation).
Drawbacks
Strategic planning is definitely not a bed of roses. It is expensive, especially in the amount of time invested by members at different levels of the organization, and may seem very tedious or a waste of time. Strategic planning may uncover differences or conflicts that were more or less hidden and which the members had learned to live with, thus making the situation during the process seem worse than before. Given that SP not an exact science, a genuine fear is that even with good SP an organization may still fail. However, in changing or turbulent environments, the risk of failure is obviously greater when no plan exists.
The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
The Most Common Errors
Two common errors are not involving the right people and not addressing the really relevant issues due to their being too burdensome or complex. Another error is the failure to link SP to organizing the resources (financial or otherwise) needed to carry it out. Any strategic plan should be able to answer the question of how much it costs. Perhaps the most common error is to put all the effort into the planning stage, but fail to put the plan into practice. A variation of this is when its implementation is interrupted by the arrival of a new management team or head who wants to restart the entire process.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
Who Should Promote Strategic Planning in Healthcare Organizations?
At the highest director in the organization, the chief executive officer (CEO) has the duty to promote the SP process and provides the organization with a plan for the future.7 Such planning is the most important core function of any CEO and is their raison d’être. Making plans for the future is probably the one function of CEOs that cannot be delegated and may represent their biggest “gamble” as heads of organizations. The CEOs can and should rely on their teams to create the plan and can also receive assistance from third parties (consultants). However, neither the team nor consultants can replace their initiative when analyzing the current situation, creating a shared vision of the desired future and identifying the best way to close the gap between reality and desire. Strategic plans cannot be purchased. However, methodological support can be purchased to develop the strategic plan. The executive board that does not plan (or buys a plan) is failing in its most fundamental task.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
Organizational Level at Which Strategic Planning Is Appropriate
This issue does not have a single universally acceptable answer. In non-healthcare organizations, corporate SP is characterized by being generated at the strategic apex of the organization and sets out the main strategic areas (SA) that affect the entire organization without exception. Deriving from this, there may be a strategic plan for each business area in which the corporation is active. In addition, each internal department may have a functional strategic plan tailored to its needs. For example, a pharmaceutical company may have a global corporate strategy. Depending on this strategy, the department of heart medicines may have another strategy that differs from that of the department of drugs acting on the brain, which in turn could be different from the diabetes department, even though the strategic plans for these 3 departments will be completely consistent with the corporate strategic plan. Within the department of drugs acting on the heart, there may be a need to develop a strategic plan for Spain that could differ from that for Pakistan. Thus, within a sufficiently large organization, distinct strategic plans may coexist at different levels. The only requirement is that each of the strategic plans is consistent and aligned with any other or others at higher levels.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
The same criterion should be applied in the HO. Thus, the Ministry of Health or Health Department should have a strategic plan and, within the Health Department, the regional health service should also have a strategic plan that is aligned with the former body. In turn, there could logically be a strategic plan for specialized care and, within this, a specific hospital could have a strategic plan. The only qualification for the implementation of strategic plans is that they should be well aligned with one other and not be in conflict or divergent. The justification for their existence is that that they pertain to a structure which, even though subordinate, is sufficiently large, complex and different from the rest of the organization.8 From this point of view, an integrated management unit, a clinical institute or a clinical service, depending on its complexity, may well need its own strategic plan which will differ from the current higher-level strategic plan. The only methodological requirement is that it is aligned with the higher-level strategic plan and is not in conflict or divergent. In recent years, and within the hospital-based cardiology, SP has been conducted for subunits such as hemodynamics, electrophysiology, clinical cardiology, noninvasive diagnosis, etc. Strategic planning is relevant when the subunit is sufficiently large, complex and specific, is clearly different from the rest of the service, and the plan is consistent with the higher-level strategic plan.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
Organizing the Strategic Planning Process
There should be a steering group within the HO to lead the development and implementation of a strategic plan6; this group should represent all interests and include people with leadership skills. Ideally, this group should be led by its chief representative, who will act as the driving force and display strong commitment to the project and should include someone who is familiar with SP methodology. The group must have real executive power to avoid being perceived as a mere planning entity.
When the HO is sufficiently large, it is very useful to provide a specific physical space (the SP Office), which is the epicenter of the planning process. Sometimes an “external facilitator” for SP is contracted; this is the person in charge of organizing, motivating, and networking all actions, giving them shape and connecting them in time and space. When required by the circumstances, this is a role often assigned to a consultant.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
To address the different aspects of analysis and generate ideas, working groups have to be created that report to the steering group. These should be cross sectional and well coordinated to avoid duplicating work and to fully focus on the assigned tasks. The number of these groups will increase, the greater the size of the HO for which they are attempting to plan.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
One aspect that may adversely affect the planning process is associated with the relative lack of strategic thinking among the health workers in the HO service.9 Healthcare professionals manage short-term situations very effectively and make quick decisions based on current diagnosis and treatment models and algorithms, which serve as a guide in taking clinical decisions. The long-term features very little in their daily work, which requires practical and immediate answers to specific problems that are usually tangible and quantifiable. Their work is usually efficient within the known, due to its repetitive nature. In contrast, physicians manage uncertainty and vagueness with difficulty and do not go looking for problems as these tend to arrive on their doorsteps and are usually routine. Physicians have a working philosophy of “hands-on” and “first line of action.” Strategic planning may present them with a challenge because they have to face problems that are not well defined, have no known precedents, evolve unpredictably, are barely quantifiable, and yet require a response. Physicians have problems dealing with ambiguity and problems that cannot be systematized.The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay
To minimize any undesirable effects, the difference between the professional skills specific to physicians in the HO services and those required when they are placed in the position of participating in or leading a strategic plan should be taken into account.
The process of strategic planning
The SP process is divided into successive phases, although it is recognized that progress may involve the need to return to some earlier stage in order to fine-tune it. The literature provides different names for distinct phases. This article takes a classical approach, which continues to be valid, identifying 5 stages in the process. The Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organization Class Essay