Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations
Implementing Strategy – Action Planning
The goal of situational analysis is to understand the current situation through a systematic analysis of the external and internal environments as well as careful consideration of the organization’s directional strategies – mission, vision, values, and strategic goals. Strategy formulation relies on an understanding of the situation and thus an understanding of the data generated throughout the process of situational analysis. Action planning provides a map to the various – divisional, functional, etc. – units as to how they can contribute to the accomplishment of organizational strategies.
Assume that you are working with a strategic management team within a recently merged suburban health care system with multiple facilities including hospital, nursing home, and outpatient clinic services. You have been asked to develop action plans for the various divisions of the hospital. Your team is also working on action plans for each department.
1. What questions might you ask about the strategic management already in place before moving forward with setting plans and objectives?
2. Describe how action plans for a division [for example, the hospital division] are similar, yet different, to action plans for a department [such as housekeeping]?
3. Discuss why the characteristics of action plans or objectives are descriptive of good organizational goals.