Fail to Plan? Plan to Fail

Managing On a Strategic Level

Health care organizations operate in an environment of rapid change, complex and varying regulations and impending health care reform. Many health care organizations do not employ physicians and face problems getting their input and involvement in strategic planning issues. Quality expectations are continually increasing and data availability is generally limited.  At the end of the day, health care organizations must overcome a number of problems in order to manage on a strategic level.

Lack of Physician Involvement

Many hospitals do not hire physicians as employees; these health care settings serve as facilities where physicians have privileges to admit and treat their patients.  Under these circumstances, physicians must be treated like customers rather than as employees, with even less available time for non-billable tasks such as administrative meetings and policy decisions.  In either case, physician involvement is a critical component of effective strategic management, and clinics and hospitals need to make sure they take physician and other clinicians' ideas and input into consideration.

Data Availability

The identification, collection and analysis of critical data such as patient medical history, billing and clinic notes is an increasing problem in the health care industry, despite the prevalence of computerized systems that are positioned as repositories.  Data must be accessible in formats that are understandable to all who use it.  Electronic medical record (EMR) systems are rapidly emerging as an effective method of gathering and reporting health care information, but the cost and time involved in implementing such systems is burdensome.

Rapidly Changing Environment

All organizations deal with change, but with health care reform's impact still uncertain and the economic recession persisting, strategy management requires an update.  No longer is it practical to count on long-term plans.  Annual--and even more frequent--planning is fast becoming a necessity.  Ongoing short- versus long-term evaluations are essential for flexible and effective strategic management in today's rapidly changing healthcare environment.

So Change It -- Systematically

Change management is the process by which an organization gets to its future state, its vision.  While traditional planning processes delineate the steps on the journey, change management attempts to facilitate that journey.  In this case, we are talking about the creation of a change management plan to accelerate the strategic planning process and ultimately institutionalize the idea of a living document.  An intelligent change management plan would lay out all the steps necessary to transition the health care organization from the current state (e.g., relying on 5-year strategic plans) to the future state (e.g., an organization that stays on top of its strategy and remains relevant by doing strategic planning on an annual basis).

In today’s health care arena, timely strategic planning means more than desired financial results, for many health care organizations, it means outright survival.  Many health-related organizations will disappear because they find themselves unable to adapt.  Hospitals are closing down in the United State in waves, particularly public hospitals in urban settings.  Those that survive and ultimately prosper will undoubtedly have a robust strategic planning function and the wherewithal to connect theory with practice.

 

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