Introduction
Strategic planning is a necessary practice without which competent management is impossible. The main priorities of strategic planning in the health sector are reducing mortality and expanding measures to prevent morbidity. Trinity Health in Pennsylvania was selected to review the improvements needed and implement strategic planning. Trinity Health is an extensive Catholic health care system (Trinity Health, 2). The market segment of medical services maintaining a relatively healthy body is still not reached. The strategic planning process for this organization was launched because there were barriers, including lack of funding and insufficient motivation of employees.
Thesis Statement
The research focuses on thoughtful strategic planning, which will help Trinity Health fully realize its mission and reach a new market level, raise its reputation, and attract investors. Strategic thinking involves finding and developing strategic forecasting opportunities for the organization by exploring possible future scenarios and traditional thinking to stimulate decision-making. Strategic impulse implies a strong desire to push an organization or business to implement change. These components can be called critical to the entire strategic planning process. Strategic planning for a medical organization is a complex process of developing, implementing, and evaluating the necessary changes (Ginter et al., 1). Trinity Health suites well for strategy development, as its mission is morally high, but material components must also be considered for its implementation.
Stating
A strategic plan in a healthcare organization is crucial for the successful motivation of employees, the qualified distribution of budgets, and quality care for the population. In a healthcare organization, it is necessary to determine which areas receive the least funding, where the highest staff turnover and what long-term goals the organization pursues (Yosick et al., 3). The next stage includes the direct development of the strategy, documenting the plan, and setting goals and indicators. The organization should monitor performance, finances, and public health. Strategic planning is an integral part of workforce planning, which allows the organization to maximize the use of human resources. As its mission, Trinity Health provides competent and affordable medical services to the population. Since the presented strategic plan will increase the range of services provided and the company’s reputation, this will allow them to provide the best medical care in a particular region. The presented plan is entirely consistent with the organization’s mission since it has a single ultimate goal – improving the quality of medical care.
Explaining
Creating a strategic plan can be divided into four stages: analysis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. At each stage, the organization pursues specific goals and objectives. After identifying the organization’s weaknesses, it is necessary to create a well-defined plan that includes steps and stages to achieve the goal. Stages may include increasing funding in certain areas, retraining, increasing employee motivation, and organizing educational events. The implementation phase will require forming a strategic group to oversee the implementation using analysis tools. Using Excel, the organization can compare the number of readmissions before and after implementing the strategic plan.
Supporting Evidence #1
In a medical organization, the problem of financing some areas to the detriment of others can often arise. Strategic financing planning can open up new areas of assistance, make it more accessible, or attract investors. New programs that require funds can be introduced to achieve greater efficiency in providing health services that support a healthy person. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to increase people’s awareness of the organization’s mission. In the case of Trinity Health, this is an approved desire to provide a full range of medical services that can be used by any person, regardless of their state of health. To attract investors, the organization can use advertising campaigns, hold open events dedicated to health, conveying to the public the reasonable goals of the organization.
Supporting Evidence #2
Strategic planning can increase the motivation of employees, which is especially important for the effective functioning of a medical organization. Strategic planning will help increase the number of employees satisfied with their work and who can work at their best. It will also allow the organization to identify underperforming staff that interferes with achieving clinic goals. The sphere of medical services is where professional emotional burnout is most common. Therefore, motivated medical workers are the key to ensuring the health of the population and the excellent reputation of the clinic. To increase the motivation of employees, additional monetary rewards and discounts on clinic services can be provided. Moral rewards also lead to more efficient work: intangible rewards can be given to employees through a rewards program such as employee of the month selection.
Supporting Evidence #3
Trinity Health may face external and internal barriers when implementing a strategic plan. Internal barriers include the difficulty of communicating the need for change to the team, the lack of human resources for new types of medical care, and the difficulty of retraining staff. External barriers include insufficient third-party funding, competition from other organizations, and a lack of public awareness of the benefits. To solve internal problems, it will be necessary to conduct repeated events within the team to inform employees that they will benefit from innovations and expand the staff. To solve external problems, advertising campaigns will be required, raising awareness of both the public and investors about the goals and needs of the organization.The most effective way to reach the health care market segment is to attract new employees, train old ones, increase motivation and obtain additional budgets. Without sufficient funding, the implementation of changes is impossible; therefore, significant efforts are required from the organization to obtain it. It is crucial to convey to all Trinity Health employees the importance and authenticity of their mission and accompany this with tangible and intangible rewards. Only competent teamwork can contribute to entering a new market segment and achieving the organization’s goals.
Conclusion
Evaluating the strategy’s effectiveness aims to identify weaknesses in the plan and quickly correct them. The assessment phase may also include interviews with staff and patients. To assess the indicators before implementing the plan, the organization can use a survey of patients on satisfaction with the quality of services and a survey of employees on the subject of motivation. After implementing the plan, long-term monitoring of the applied initiatives is necessary. Re-survey of staff and patients will be required. The organization can also pay attention to the internal efficiency of the clinic: the number of deaths, readmissions, and duration of treatment for specific diseases. The evidence of succeeding in delivering broader services will be the number of patients seeking supportive healthcare services.Thus, the effective work of a medical organization is impossible without thoughtful strategic planning. In the case of Trinity Health, the focus was on getting funding and motivating employees. These methods will help the organization enter a new medical services market and improve its reputation. Thanks to strategic planning, the organization will achieve its goals and objectives.
References
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Trinity Health. (2022). About Us. Www.trinity-Health.org. Web.
Yosick, L., Crook, R. E., Gatto, M., Maxwell, T. L., Duncan, I., Ahmed, T., & Mackenzie, A. (2019). Effects of a population health community-based palliative care program on cost and utilization. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 22(9), 1075-1081. Web.