Escalate Growth Through Strategic Planning

After reviewing past strategic processes, take a look at specific areas of success and failure within the organization. The numbers don't lie, and they will unveil key opportunities to lead discussions. Areas of focus may include:

• Market share overall and by service line
• Out-migration statistics
• Profit & loss statements
• Managed care reimbursements
• Charity care, bad debt, Medicare, Medicaid mix
• Transfer agreements
• Referral statistics and physician liaison(s) logs for leakage issues
• Physician, employee and patient satisfaction scores

A recent study conducted by Forbes Insights and FD in conjunction with the Association for Strategic Planning and the Council of Public Relations Firms analyzed which initiatives would be considered strategic in your organization. The results are as follows (Source: Forbes Insights and FD):

1. New market entry – 71%
2. Acquisitions or divestures - 63%
3. Business model transformation (e.g., pricing) – 58%
4. Repositioning or rebranding – 57%
5. New product launch – 48%
6. Reorganization – 47%
7. Sourcing/outsourcing – 30%
8. Channel transformation – 29%
9. Recapitalization – 24%
10. Technology platform replacement – 23%
11. Reengineering – 23%
12. Changes to the compensation model – 23%
13. C-level leadership training – 17%

Keep in mind—this stage is entirely about your organization—not what your competitors are doing. This is your hospital's visionary work, not a short-term reaction to an attempt to keep up or benchmark with local competition.

External Assessment
It is helpful to conduct an external assessment to understand national and regional trends that are largely out of your organization's control, but will have an effect on your strategic planning outcomes. The evaluation should include policy, technology and medical advancements. Consumerism, reimbursement and payers, work force, academic, economic and other trend assessments should be absorbed. Trend analysis should forecast the next three to five years. National best-practice review and benchmarking should also be conducted in this stage. The primary deliverable at the conclusion of this phase is the realignment of your vision and mission.

Critical Issues Analysis
Once the long-term vision is clarified, organizational critical issues should be attached. Organizational direction and strategy will address Where should we be going? A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) should be conducted at this stage. Once the critical issues are revealed in this process, utilizing Six Sigma tools such as a KJ Analysis and affinity diagrams may help categorize the critical issues. These tools deliver a sense of objectivity to the work. Other tools, such as a QFD, can help prioritize them.

Once the critical issues have been determined and prioritized, they should be attached with a clear understanding of what defines "success." Defining the goals is the key deliverable of this stage. This phase is entirely about What needs to be done?—and not How will it be accomplished? That is next.

Strategic planning goals may be developed around such areas as:

• A comprehensive fundraising program
• Implementing quality improvements
• Employee satisfaction initiatives
• Patient experience initiatives
• Human resources develop programs
• Facilities improvement initiatives
• Medical staff development initiatives
• Program development
• Ambulatory care development
• Post-acute care programs
• Identity/branding initiatives

Strategies Development
Implementation planning answers the question How are we going to get there? Having a better understanding of the regional environmental shifts and competitive factors will help identify barriers to success. Competitive information has not been introduced before now because it creates too much temptation for hospital leaders to become distracted from the long-term vision of what "should be" by the pressure to react to immediate competition.

In Part 2 of this article, we will explore secondary research including competitive analysis, market trends analysis and marketing audits, primary research, setting up strategic service line and cross-functional teams, competitive differentiation analysis, defining trackable benefits and critical success factors, and unveil a case study on AtlantiCare's Baldridge Award-winning strategic planning and execution process.