HCS499 Discussion Practical Techniques in Health Care Organizations

Strategic Planning
Practical Techniques for Strategic
Planning in Health Care Organizations
By Prathibha Varkey, MD, MPH, MHPE, and Kevin E. Bennet
In this article…
Take a look at the elements needed to create a strong
strategic plan.
The development of an organizational strategy provides
a long-term road map for a health care organization, and is
vitally important in the light of current uncertain economic
circumstances.
The strategy statements provide the bedrock for the
entire organization to create and execute tactics for viable
future business, prioritize goals, and allocate and coordinate
resources.
Yet, strategic planning appears to be grossly underutilized,
especially in the health care sector. It is often viewed as a ritualistic task that needs to be done.1 Yet executives often commit
significant resources to the process. In fact, Taub remarks that a
company with over 3000 employees spends on an average, $3.1
million to produce a strategic plan, with little return.2
Strategic planning is a “set of organizational processes
for identifying the desired future of the organization and
developing decision guidelines”3 and provides a map for how
an organization will achieve its objectives and goals.
In addition to the obvious benefit of creating a strategic
plan for the organization, the process itself, if done well, is
powerful in team building and creating the necessary buy-in
and enthusiasm for future change and action.
It also provides guidance for product and market
improvement, and enhancement of operational processes,
community engagement and bottom-line productivity.
At the first kickoff meeting of the executive team, we recommend that the leader present a big-picture view of the future
and vision for the organization and the need for change.
The sense of urgency galvanizes the team to action and
creates the support of the overall organization for the evolutionary or radical changes that need to occur. Some of the
issues the leader will need to address are:
• Where are we compared to where we want to be?
• Organizational problems
• Management problems
• Staff problems
• Failures of the past and present
• Future vision
Typically, a deeply felt statement of purpose for the organization that will also make work personally meaningful is
important to rally the team for the work ahead.
For example, at Mayo Clinic, a singular guiding focus of
the strategic and tactical goals of the organization and unifies
the staff is reflected in the primary value of the organization:
“The needs of the patient come first.”
Creating a vision statement
The kick-off meeting is typically followed by brainstorming sessions by the executive team to create a vision statement for the organization (see Figure 1). Common characteristics of vision statements include:
Creating a sense of urgency
• The vision statement embodies the highest values and
aspirations for excellence, service, and community.
It is critical to recognize that strategic planning is the
ultimate responsibility of the senior management team led by
the senior-most executive responsible for the organization or
the work-unit.
• A vision provides the inspiration to the staff to reach for
what could be, and to rise above their fears and preoccupations with the current situation.
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PEJ MARCH•APRIL/2010
Figure 1. Strategic Planning
Creating a Vision
Leader
Create a sense
of urgency for
change
Executive Team
Strategic Analysis
Strategy Formulation
Implementation planning
Management and Exeacutive Team
Mangement and Executive Team
Mangement Team
Finance
Arenas
Brainstorm
to create
a vision
SWOT analysis
Competition analysis
Industry analysis
Environmental scan
Market
Utilizing a knowledgeable facilitator to guide the brainstorming process
is recommended for an efficient process, and serves as an external validator of the statement.
Strategic analysis
To develop tactics, it is important
to review internal and external data to
allow examination of capabilities and
weaknesses in the organization’s cur-
Economic
Logic
Staging
Operations
Vehicles
Tactics
Budgets
Metrics
Differentilators
rent processes and structure in order
to meet the vision.
Beginning with the end in mind
will avoid being mired by preoccupations with the current state of the
organization. Typically, this entails
competitive market analysis, a SWOT
(strength, weakness, opportunities,
threats) analysis of the organization
in its current state, management and
financial accounting, and examina-
tion of the marketing plan, strategic
alliances, and current organizational
process and structure.
It is important that, as the management team works on this analysis,
the leadership continues to exude
vision and statement of purpose. This
analysis should provide the elucidation of the current business status
with the delineation of what the organization should be in the future. Some
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of the inputs to consider during the
strategic analysis include:
• How large should the
organization be?
• Where is it located?
• How does it interact with other
parts of the organization?
• How does it interact with the
outside world?
• How does the staff interact with
each other?
• What is the leadership structure?
• Are partners needed to achieve
strategic goals and vision?
• What do we value as outcomes?
• How can we measure success?
Strategy formulation
Once the strategic analysis is
complete, the critical step of strategy
formulation comes to play. Hambrick
and Fredrickson 4 outline the key elements of strategy (See Figure 1) to
include:
• Differentiators for the organization
to win in the marketplace
• Vehicles to get there
• Arenas in which the organization
will be active to be competitive
• Staging the speed and sequence of
the implementation plan
• Economic logic that determines
how the organization will obtain
returns
The strategy formulation is best
carried out by the executive team
with assistance from the management
team.
Creating an action plan
Once the strategy is formulated,
the specific tactics to achieve the
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goals, the implementation timeline
and team, budgets and resources, and
metrics for success will need to be
drawn out by the management team.
Once these are vetted and modified with input from the executive
team and leader, it is ready to be
communicated to the organization.
The plan is communicated only after
complete management alignment and
commitment to the plan.
Prathibha Vark
MD, MPH, MHPE is associate
chair of the department
of medicine, and associate
professor of medicine,
preventive medicine and
medical education at Mayo Clinic,
Rochester, Minn.
Varkey.Prathibha@mayo.edu
Challenges
Typical challenges that organizations or teams face during strategy
planning include:
• An inordinate amount of time
spent on analysis without reaching
the primary goal to reach a strategy
• The strategic planning becoming
too operational versus visionary
• Too lengthy a process, such that
participants lose interest and
momentum
• Not involving the right people in
the planning process
• Not creating measures to evaluate
success of goals and objectives
In the end, physician executives
can use the strength of strategic planning and its process to develop clarity
of purpose and vision to catalyze organizational alignment where employees
are inspired to work together as part of
a larger whole to attain the organizational vision.
References
1.
Zuckerman AM. Healthcare Strategic
Planning, 2nd ed. Chicago: American
College of Healthcare Executives, Health
Administration Press, 2005.
2.
Taub S. Is planning a waste of time?
Accessible at http://www.cfo.com/article.
cfm/3010159?f=related ; printed on August
12, 2003
3.
Ginter PM, Swayne LE, Duncan WJ.
Strategic Management of Healthcare
Organizations, 4th ed. Boston: Blackwell
publishing, Boston, 2002.
4.
Hambrick DC, Fredrickson JW. Are
you sure you have a strategy? Acad of
Management Executive, 2005; 19 (4): 51-62
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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