The strategic planning process requires a significant investment of time, effort, and resources to prepare for the future, yet health care organizations’ planning efforts do not always produce desirable results.   The following four factors are commonly linked to failed strategic plans: Loss of energy and focus Lack of management Disconnect from operations Lack of resources […]

Health care organizations today are continually faced with competing priorities for resource allocation. As the old adage goes, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” and most often, the squeaky wheel is an operational or infrastructure priority, such as technology demands, FTE needs (vs. workforce development), facility improvement (vs. strategic facility planning), budgets, marketing, department-and specific […]

As discussed in our organizational direction post, a vision statement is an image of the future that an organization seeks to create—or rather, what the organization wants to be in the future.  While establishing a vision is a critical component of strategic planning, it does not address howan organization will realize its desired future state. […]

Identifying your organizational direction is a key activity within any strategic planning process. The components of organizational direction describe your hospital or system’s reason for existence and frames where you wish to be in the future.  In our era of market instability and post-reform adjustment, organizational direction can help provide the clarity your system needs […]

Strategic planning for health care organizations is more important than ever before given the uncertainties about health care reform and rapidly changing market dynamics. In the past, strategic plans have been used to identify growth opportunities and prioritize capital needs; however, in the post-reform era, growth does not necessarily mean expansion, but rather integrating high-quality […]