Prepare an analysis of Steps 1 through 3 of the MAPP Strategic Plan initiatives and apply at least three quality and/or risk management concepts, measures, and tools in your paper.
Paper must be three to five double-spaced pages (excluding the title and reference pages). Utilize a minimum of two scholarly and/or peer-reviewed sources (Links to an external site.) that were published within the last five years. Your paper and all sources must be formatted according to APA style
3.2 STRATEGIC PLANNING
Two definitions are necessary to understand strategic planning. Strategy addresses the question of how to position an organization in its environment. A strategy is a major course of action an organization uses to pursue its mission and vision. Strategic planning is the process of developing strategies. As a result of conducting a strategic planning process, an organization will make significant, nonrecurring decisions about its nature and the directions it will take in the future. As a first step, an organization must first clearly articulate its mission.
Mission
An organizations mission statement delineates its purpose and reason for existence. It establishes boundaries for the organizations activities, programs, and services. It creates focus, assuring that the organization does not attempt to be all things to all people. Mission statements are as important for what they exclude as for what they include.
A mission statement is typically brief, usually not exceeding two or three sentences. It communicates the current intentions of the organization. Mission statements are often accompanied by statements of vision and values.
Vision and Values
Decision makers in many organizations develop a targeted description of the future outcomes expected if the organization is successful. This description is called a vision. Visions are somewhat idealistic because they are intended to motivate people and enroll the hearts, as well as the minds, of organizational stakeholders. Many organizations also produce a written statement of the values upon which an organization is built. This is especially true in organizations with a religious affiliation or foundation. They may rely on explicit values to a greater degree than their secular counterparts. Strategic planning activities are based on the mission, vision, and values of the organization.
Guiding statements (the mission, vision, and values documents) from two different organizations provide useful examples. Fairview Health Services (FHS) is a large, nonprofit integrated health delivery system in Minnesota. FHS is comprised of 7 hospitals, has over 2000 employed and affiliated physicians, and is supported by more than 21,000 staff. The mission of FHS is to improve the health of the community and support research and education efforts (Fairview Health Services 2010). The vision of FHS is to be the best health care delivery system in America. The values of FHSdignity, integrity, service, and compassionreflect beliefs regarding ways to serve individuals.
A second example of a guiding statement comes from Healthy People 2020, which lists strategic priorities for national health promotion and disease prevention efforts to improve the health of people in the United States by 2020. It is used as a tool for strategic planning by all levels of government and the health system to prioritize targets and to measure progress for health issues in specific populations (US Department of Health and Human Services 2010). The mission of Healthy People 2020 is to identify priorities for improving health nationwide and engage multiple sectors to take health actions based on scientific evidence. The vision of Healthy People 2020 is to help promote a society in which all people live long, healthy lives. The values of Healthy People 2020 are embedded in its overarching goalsthe values emphasize a desire to improve community health, nurture healthy behaviors, and eliminate health disparities.
Both guiding statements (FHS and Healthy People 2020) set stretch goalsbecoming the best health care delivery system in America (FHS) and creating a society where all people live long, healthy lives (Healthy People 2020). Stretch goals are important to the improvement process because they challenge employees and stakeholders to perform at even higher levels. The mission, vision, and values of each organization create the foundation for aspirations and strategic plans of the organization.
Strategic Planning Steps
The strategic planning process is depicted in Figure 31 and consists of six steps that proceed from the mission, vision, and values. Note that the mission, vision, and values have two roles in the strategic planning process. First, they form the foundation of the planning efforts. Second, the results of the planning effort should serve to validate the continuation of the mission. The mission of the organization (and more rarely, the vision or values) is occasionally changed as a result of the strategic planning process, as shown by the feedback loop in Figure 31. Although not a common occurrence, it is important for an organization to alter its mission when the environment, the people, or the community it serves changes, or when it undergoes a major transformation.
The six steps of strategic planning include the following:
1a. Analyze the internal organization
1b. Analyze the external environment
2a. Analyze internal strengths and weaknesses
2b. Analyze external opportunities and threats
3. Identify and evaluate strategic issues and options
4. Select strategic priorities
FIGURE 31 The Strategic Planning Process
Although the steps in the process are presented in a linear fashion for simplicity, in reality, they are interdependent. Identification of key strategic issues can result in a reassessment of external opportunities and threats, for example. A selection of priorities can mean changes in internal operations that alter the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization. The strategic planning process is more realistically described as an interdependent cycle than a series of discrete steps (Begun and Heatwole 1999).
Steps 1a and 1b: Analyze the Internal Organization and the External Environment
Strategic planning begins with an analysis of the internal environment of the organization and the external environment in which the organization operates. Because the internal and external environments of organizations are constantly changing, regular review is essential in order to identify and assess the impact of changes and how they affect an organization. Factors that typically are reviewed to assess changes include laws, regulations, payment mechanisms, competitors, workforce supply, trends in quality and safety, demography of the service area, and customer or client satisfaction.
An internal organizational analysis consists of a review of the health organizations resources and performance. An internal analysis typically includes measures of productivity, staffing ratios compared to industry standards, key financial ratios, patient and client satisfaction rates, employee morale, and other performance measures.
An external environmental analysis looks at the key factors outside the organization such as economic, political, and legal trends that affect the service area and the health care organization. It is also important to examine the demographics and disease risks in the community carefully. Conducting an external environmental analysis is an extensive activity undertaken to gain a complete understanding of relevant external forces affecting the organization. At a minimum, this component of the environmental audit should include key demographic trends, employment data, poverty data, workforce supply, and health status of the community. It also should include characteristics of the client or customer populations served by the organization, where they come from, and market penetration trends.
Steps 2a and 2b: Analyze Internal Strengths and Weaknesses and External Opportunities and Threats (SWOT Analysis)
The analysis of the internal and external environments forms the basis for determining the organizations internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external threats and opportunities. Taken together, these two steps are often referred to as SWOT analysis. This acronym refers to the Strengths and Weaknesses inside the organization and the Opportunities and Threats outside the organization.
A SWOT analysis uses the findings from the environmental audit to perform a critical self-assessment of the organization. Step 2a analyzes the list of factors identified in the internal organizational assessment performed in Step 1a, identifying those factors that represent strengths of the organization (what the organization does well) or weaknesses of the organization (what the organization does not do well). For example, strengths of a health organization may include the high quality of services it delivers to its constituents, a highly committed staff, and low staff turnover. In contrast, weaknesses may include productivity problems, financial difficulties, falling client base, and aging physical plant.
Step 2b analyzes the list of factors identified in the external environmental assessment, identifying those factors that represent opportunities for the organization (favorable trends outside the organization) and threats to the organization (unfavorable trends outside the organization). For example, opportunities for a health organization may include improving community economic growth, increased governmental funding, and grant opportunities. In contrast, threats may include potential funding decreases, the opening of a new organization that serves the same needs and may encroach on the organizations activities, or deteriorating socioeconomic trends in the constituent group.
Step 3: Identify and Evaluate Strategic Issues and Options
Analyzing the internal and external environments of a health care organization in terms of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) enables the organization to recognize specific areas where improvement is necessary and development is possible. The fifth component of the strategic planning model (Step 3) is to identify and evaluate major strategic issues and choices. Managers of health organizations have the responsibility to understand all the issues facing their organization completely in order to prioritize their importance and make decisions to address the priority issues adequately. This process of prioritizing is essential for health organizations, which often have limited resources to meet the seemingly unlimited needs of their stakeholders. The strategic issues must be monitored continually and choices must be identified so that the organization stays responsive to the patients and population it serves. An organization that tries to do everything will end up doing nothing.
Once the most important issues facing a health organization are identified, strategic choices must be made to guide the organizations attempts to address them adequately. First, the SWOT analysis can be used to identify strategies to (1) take advantage of strengths and to maximize opportunities (max-max strategies); (2) take advantage of strengths to reduce vulnerability to threats (max-min strategies); (3) minimize weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities (min-max strategies); and (4) minimize weaknesses and avoid threats (min-min or defensive strategies). Strategies in the first category, which draw on strengths and opportunities, are ideal and usually involve growth and expansion. Strategies in the last category, which address weaknesses and threats, often involve downsizing and retrenching.
Two other techniques assist in the process of making strategic choices: key issue analysis and forecasting. These techniques help an organization analyze its priorities in the context of the changing external environment to make useful strategic choices for the future.
Key Issue Analysis A key issue is an event that, if it occurs or does not occur, will have an important impact on the organization. In a strategic planning process, it is important to identify and prioritize all key issues in the context of the internal and external environment of the organization, which is constantly changing. For example, emergency preparedness is often identified as a key issue for public health departments. Until September 11, 2001, however, concerns regarding emergency preparedness would normally have received a low priority in an issue analysis. Today, it receives a much higher priority. Among hospitals, implementation of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 is a key current issue.
Assumptions are often made when identifying key issues. An assumption is an estimate of an important future event over which an organization has little or no control. For example, as a result of the economic downturn that began in 2008, state and local governments face substantial problems in balancing governmental budgets. Assumptions need to be made by publicly funded health organizations regarding the impact of these budget reductions on health programming.
Identifying how changing external circumstances and events will influence or alter the priority issues of health organizations in the future is an important component of key issue analysis.
Forecasting Forecasting consists of predicting or estimating future events in the environment. Forecasting is usually based on extrapolation of past or present trends into the future. Many trends in public health are readily subject to forecasting techniques. This includes forecasts of population trends, death rates and their causes, health behaviors and risk factors, and economic predictors.
However, forecasting trends can also be inexact and elusive. Some events are the result of discontinuities or turbulent developments in the environment and may not be identified through a forecast of past trends. For example, the outbreak of an epidemic or an unexplained plant closure of a major employer in a community is an event not likely to be anticipated or included in a forecasting exercise.
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