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.
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.
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.