Strategic Analysis and Operational Consideration
Strategic planning is an essential part of an organization as it allows an organization to understand its environment and other internal factors that could affect its operation. While strategic analysis and operational consideration are more vigorous in profit-oriented organizations, it is important in a non-profit organization like healthcare institutions (Schiavone & Simoni, 2019). Strategic analysis and operational consideration allow an organization to decide on important issues that could derive the desired success. The purpose of this assignment is to create a succinct and thorough analysis of the internal and external environment of St. Antony Medical Center.
Part 1: Understanding the Environment
St. Antony Medical Center aims to start a new for-profit 50-bed acute care hospital that is slated to open in the next eight months. This level of operation would as well expose the organization to increased competition in the healthcare sector. The traditional competition in the healthcare sector used to entail issues such as price, quality, the superiority of the products and services, and convenience in delivering healthcare. These factors defined the Magnus rating in healthcare (Benzaghta et al., 2021). The current competition in healthcare industry is defined by the rate of innovation and application of technology in healthcare. Health IT has been changing the competition trend in healthcare setting where healthcare organizations with advanced IT systems offer quality services compared to those without intense technological application.
Investing in health IT resources is one of the top-notch factors that St. Antony Medical Center needs to address in its plan of operating in the healthcare sector. Starting the clinic with an intense application of the technology would define the clinic’s success in the healthcare industry. The current high standards set by the current healthcare organizations operating in the market has allowed patients to understand what they expect in an organization (Kraus et al., 2021). The current application of technology in healthcare promotes positive health outcome, eliminates inefficiencies that might lead to an increase in healthcare cost, reduces medication errors, and enhance the accessibility of healthcare. Therefore, an effective accomplishment of the recent demands in the healthcare market requires intense application of technology and innovation.
The external competition is another issue that would allow St. Antony Medical Center to understand the market. While stiff competition might affect the entry of the clinic into the industry, it relays more information about the value and quality of healthcare required in the market. Understanding the operation of other players in the market through benchmarking is imperative in learning various factors that define success in the industry (Kraus et al., 2021). Conducting a benchmark within the clinics in the same region would as well aid in examining the consumer preference and gaps that need to be filled within the healthcare system in the region. Understanding methods of healthcare delivery among the peers and developing ways of outshining their operations trends would affect the position of St. Antony Medical Center in the healthcare market.
The clinic would again focus on its human resource department. The input of the healthcare workers defines quality and safety of patients. A clinic with the ability to manage its human resources can easily meet its goals and missions. An organization that understands that employee engagement is a key to performance would develop better ways of relating with the healthcare workers to improve safety and efficiency of services. The relationship that a clinic develops with the employees motivates healthcare workers to unleash their full potential in care delivery (Schiavone & Simoni, 2019). Studies show that increased employee engagement is associated with high retention, a culture of patient safety and employees, and increased patient-centered care. St. Antony Medical Center would need to invest more in its staff to enhance its initial operation and meet target patients’ needs.
The stakeholders form an integral part of the operation at St. Antony Medical Center. The implementation plan would need key stakeholders such as nurses, doctors, departmental leaders, front-line personnel, and the leadership team. The initial operation of the clinic would depend on the effort of all these stakeholders (Kraus et al., 2021). Integrating opinion of all stakeholders in the decision-making process positively impact the success in healthcare setting. The stakeholders are involved in putting the strategy into action and supporting the continued success of the clinic at this preliminary stage. The leadership team tasked with drafting the strategy will need to continue to collaborate to ensure that the clinic’s functions are carried out successfully.
Organization capacity would also be essential in assessing the clinic’s readiness to start its operations. Assessing the capacity of an organization focus on five main areas. These areas include financial management, human resource management, program management, and governance (Benzaghta et al., 2021). The plan of governance needs to address major issues that would affect the operation of the clinic such as resources and workforce. The success of St. Antony Medical Center would rely on the measures that the management would be taking to manage finance, employees, and programs within the clinic. Assessment of the organization’s capability aids in fostering team sharing, enhances organization learning, and encourages measures to meet the desired healthcare quality.
Part 2: Organization Analysis
St. Antony Medical Center will use PESTLE analysis as one of the strategic tools in analyzing its macro environment. The tool effectively examines the political, economic, social, and technological (Benzaghta et al., 2021). Changes in the macro-environment issues would have a direct impact on the operations of St. Antony Medical Center.
Political
Political factors would have essential role in determining factors affecting St. Antony Medical Center’s long-term productivity in the healthcare industry. Unstable political situations negatively impact the healthcare industry while stable political systems allows industries to thrive (Benzaghta et al., 2021). St. Antony Medical Center is not an exception among these issues as they affect industries across the globe. An increase in political instability would affect the ability to station St. Antony Medical Center in the proposed location.
Economical
Change in global economic stability would affect St. Antony Medical Center operations. A falling economy affects any kind of business because most consumers become cautious about their expenditures. An affected economy in the country would result in many people failing to pay for their health insurance, which heightens the number of people who cannot access healthcare services (Benzaghta et al., 2021). While health is a basic need in society, the inability to meet the healthcare costs would come from an affected economic development.
Culture
Society’s culture defines how people in a particular society operate. The culture defines the type of healthcare services required by patients. The belief and cultures play a significant role in designing the type of healthcare services for the population. For instance, some cultures adhere to natural remedies to the extent that they would not visit healthcare centers when faced with serious medical issues (Schiavone & Simoni, 2019). Again, a society might be slow to embrace modern healthcare delivery to retain their cultural values distinct within the community. Operating in such communities would require a St. Antony Medical Center to devise an operational strategy that will align with the beliefs of such people. Besides, analysis of demographics would allow St. Antony Medical Center to think of an opportunity to expand and meet the urgent need of the target population.
Technological
Technology plays an essential role in the operation of healthcare systems in the modern environment. The changes that have been increasing in the modern world come from the intense technological innovation that aims at changing people’s lives. The need to attain high levels of globalization has been expanding the spread at which healthcare institutions accept technology. The St. Antony Medical Center is not an exception to the technological migration. Service delivery and amenities installed in the healthcare organizations must please the client by allowing them to meet their technological demands (Schiavone & Simoni, 2019). The active participation in the automation process of functions at St. Antony Medical Center would impact the efficiency of service delivery at the clinic.
SWOT analysis
This tool aids in the examination of the current state of the company and the future existence of St. Antony Medical Center. The information from SWOT reveals more information on the weakness that need to be reduced and the company’s strengths that should be increasing daily. In this case, SWOT analysis would allow the St. Antony Medical Center to form a better strategy that minimizes the identified weakness and optimize of strength and opportunities (Benzaghta et al., 2021). One of the strengths that St. Antony Medical Center can focus on is on maintaining a strong leadership structure that would hasten the decision-making process. However, the collective bargaining power of employees might be a major weakness as it will increase its expenses. The clinic can also focus on the opportunities linked to heath IT as this would define its quality of services in the market. Besides, the threat of competition would still affect its positioning in the industry.
Conclusion
St. Antony Medical Center is operating in a sector that requires intense strategic analysis and operational consideration. The increased value of the healthcare sector in the US has invited many players in the field, leading to strict government regulations to design the required quality and safety of patients. These issues call for effective analysis of both internal and external factors that would affect the operation of a healthcare organization in the market. The success of St. Antony Medical Center would depend on effective analysis of the competition, its management structure, healthcare workers, and macro elements within the market.
References
Benzaghta, M. A., Elwalda, A., Mousa, M. M., Erkan, I., & Rahman, M. (2021). SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature review. Journal of Global Business Insights, 6(1), 55-73. Doi 10.5038/2640-6489.6.1.1148
Kraus, S., Schiavone, F., Pluzhnikova, A., & Invernizzi, A. C. (2021). Digital transformation in healthcare: Analyzing the current state-of-research. Journal of Business Research, 123, 557-567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.10.030
Schiavone, F., & Simoni, M. (2019). Strategic marketing approaches for the diffusion of innovation in highly regulated industrial markets: the value of market access. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 34(7), 1606-1618. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-08-2018-0232
Assessment 2 Instructions
For the Strategic Analysis and Operational Considerations assessment, you will create a 5-7-page environmental analysis for the fictional St. Antony Main Medical Center. Also, as part of your submission you will address the importance of creating a strategic framework to help the organization address the results of the analysis.
Introduction
Success in strategic planning requires an understanding of the organization, the environment in which it operates, its resources, competitors, vision and mission, and its capabilities on a day-to-day basis. How does one gain this understanding? Strategic thinkers evaluate changing environments, analyze data, questions expectations, and develop new ideas (Ginter, Duncan, & Swayne, 2013). Understanding and analyzing the situation requires analyzing the environments in which the organization exists and developing or refining the organization’s strategy (Ginter, Duncan, & Swayne, 2013). Various techniques and analyzes are conducted to identify these important considerations.
Engaging in the strategic planning process requires leaders to be aware of their organization’s internal operations as well as the external environment in which it operates. Various tools exist to aid organizations in the strategic planning process. The strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis is a common tool utilized to conduct an environmental analysis. An additional tool is Porter’s five forces model. This framework is utilized to examine the competition the organization faces in the environment in which they operate (Healey & Marchese, 2012). Other tools include mind maps and balanced scorecards. Data obtained via these analyzes and examinations will guide the organization in determining what it wants to do and what it is capable of doing (White, 2012).
References
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2013). Strategic management of health care organizations (7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Healey, B. J., & Marchese, M. C. (2012). Foundations of health care management: Principles and methods. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
White, S. V. (2012). Essential resources for the healthcare quality professional: Quality and performance improvement. Glenview, IL: National Association for Health Care Quality.
Demonstration of Proficiency
Competency 1: Apply theories and best practices in strategic leadership to drive improvements for health care systems.
Analyze the internal, general, and external environment within which an organization operates.
Discuss implications for the organization’s future if strategic frameworks are not utilized.
Competency 2: Apply theories and best practices in human resource and workforce management to solve organizational issues in health care systems.
Analyze the impact and importance of understanding competition within the health industry as it applies to strategic planning.
Examine strategic frameworks of health care organizations.
Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others and is consistent with health care professionals.
Demonstrate effective communication through writing and proper use of APA style.
Communicate in a professional and effective manner by writing content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Preparation
This assessment is based around the Vila Health: Strategic Analysis and Operational Considerations media simulation. Be sure you have completed this activity before completing this assessment.
You may also find it useful to research on strategic planning, Porter’s five forces model, environmental scanning, and strategic frameworks beyond the resources provided.
Instructions
In addition to the scenario presented in the Vila Health: Strategic Analysis and Operational, incorporate the following change in the organization’s environment when creating your analysis for this assessment:
A new for-profit 50-bed acute care hospital is slated to open in the next eight months, offering a full complement of services.
The goal of this assessment is to create a succinct and thorough analysis of the internal and external environment for St. Antony Medical Center. This report should help stakeholders understand the importance of understanding the environment in which the organization operates. Additionally, it should clearly lay out an analysis of the internal and external environments and apply one or more strategic frameworks to analyze the environment and raise operational considerations.
This assessment has two distinct parts:
Part 1: Understanding the Environment
Part 2: Organizational Analysis
When completing your assessment, read the instructions carefully to make sure you are addressing all the scoring guide criteria.
Part 1: Understanding the Environment
For this part of your assessment, the focus should be on providing a brief analysis of the ways in which competition within the health care industry effects and should be incorporated into strategic planning. As part of your analysis you should consider the types of evidence and analysis that would be compelling to the stakeholders at St. Anthony Medical Center to ensure that they are onboard and understand the importance at considering the competition in the environment when undertaking strategic planning. This relates to both internal and external factors.
As you create this part of your assessment, it may be helpful to think about these areas and aspects of an organization that compete for time, attention, and resources:
External competition.
Staffing.
Stakeholders.
Organizational Capacity.
Part 2: Organizational Analysis
For the second part of your assessment, you will present an environmental analysis for the organization. Additionally, you will discuss one or more strategic frameworks (for example, a SWOT analysis) and apply it to the scenario presented in the media simulation. Finally, you will create a compelling argument as to the need for utilizing a strategic framework and the potential implications for the organization’s future if nothing is employed.
It may be useful to apply Porter’s Five Forces of Competitive Position Analysis when conducting and communicating your analysis.
Additional Requirements
Structure: Include a title page, table of contents, and reference page.
Length: 5–7 pages.
References: Cite at least three current scholarly or professional resources.
Format: Use APA style for references and citations.
You may wish to refer to the following APA resources to help with your structure, formatting, and style:
APA Style and Format.
APA Style Paper Template [DOCX].
APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX].
Font: Times New Roman font, 12 point, double-spaced.
Strategic Analysis and Operational Considerations Scoring Guide
CriteriaNon-performanceBasicProficientDistinguishedAnalyze the impact and importance of understanding competition within the health industry as it applies to strategic planning.Does not explain the impact and importance of understanding competition within the health industry as it applies to strategic planning.Explains the impact and importance of understanding competition within the health industry as it applies to strategic planning.Analyzes the impact and importance of understanding competition within the health industry as it applies to strategic planning.Elaborates on the impact and importance of understanding competition within the health industry as it applies to strategic planning providing alternatives for competition.Examine strategic frameworks of health care organizations.Does not identify strategic frameworks of health care organizations.Identifies strategic frameworks of health care organizations.Examines strategic frameworks of health care organizations.Examines strategic frameworks of health care organizations considering possible pros and cons of each framework.Analyze the internal, general, and external environment within which an organization operates.Does not define the internal, general, and external environment within which an organization operates.Defines the internal, general, and external environment within which an organization operates.Analyzes the internal, general, and external environment within which an organization operates.Specifies the internal, general, and external environment within which an organization operates, providing examples of each environment.Discuss implications for the organization’s future if strategic frameworks are not utilized.Does not describe implications for the organization’s future if strategic frameworks are not utilized.Describes implications for the organization’s future if strategic frameworks are not utilized.Discusses implications for the organization’s future if strategic frameworks are not utilized.Categorizes implications for the organization’s future if strategic frameworks are not utilized.Demonstrate effective communication through writing and proper use of APA style.Does not demonstrate effective communication through writing and proper use of APA style.Demonstrates communication through writing and use of APA style with few errors.Demonstrates effective communication through writing and proper use of APA style.Demonstrates effective communication through writing and proper use of APA style with no significant errors, and supports analysis.Communicate in a professional and effective manner by writing content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.Does not communicate in a professional and effective manner by writing content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.Communication is not consistently professional, clear, and logical, or errors in the use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling, or the writing distract from the message.Communicates in a professional and effective manner by writing content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.Communication is professional, effective, and insightful; content is clear, logical, and persuasive; grammar, punctuation, and spelling are without errors.
