Week 5: Strategic Planning
“For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” –African proverb
As this course has emphasized, healthcare leaders and managers typically have oversight of a vast array of responsibilities and outcomes. Like a general of an army or a physician helping a patient through a long-term disease, they must demonstrate that they can make critical day-to-day decisions, but they must also have a vision for a better future for those they serve. In healthcare management, that vision can best be achieved through planning involving a strategic process and group of stakeholders.
Healthcare leaders need to know how to ensure that their organizations succeed for the long term, and to anticipate market forces and policy and funding changes, among other challenges. In strategic planning, the process is as important as the plan itself.
This week, you will explore various aspects of strategic planning. You will examine challenges related to strategic planning in healthcare settings, the roles of stakeholders and healthcare leaders in the process, and components and goals of successful strategic plans.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Analyze stakeholder roles in meeting strategic planning challenges
- Analyze the role of healthcare leaders and managers in meeting the needs of stakeholders and the goals of the organization through strategic planning
- Identify the components and goals of a successful strategic plan
- Compare goals and strategies of strategic plans
- Analyze barriers to successful strategic planning implementation
Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
Required Readings
Course Text: Buchbinder, S. B., & Shanks, N. H. (2017). Introduction to health care management (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Chapter 5, “Strategic Planning” (pp. 107–123)
In this chapter, you will be introduced to the strategic planning process within healthcare settings. The author provides insight into the process of identifying a desired future state for a healthcare organization and planning as a means to achieve it.
Last Chance Hospital—Case or Chapters 5 and 6 (pp. 536–537)
Article: Javanparast, S., Freeman, T., Baum, F., Ziersch, A., Mackean, T., Labonte, R., & Sanders, D. (n.d). How institutional forces, ideas and actors shaped population health planning in Australian regional primary health care organisations. BMC Public Health, 18. doi:10.1186/s12889-018-5273-4
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.
This article features a look at collaborative healthcare planning for population health programs in Australia.
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer) (2014c). Strategic planning [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
The approximate length of this media piece is 4 minutes.
This media features public health leaders discussing various roles, informal and formal, in strategic planning.
Note: You may view this Course Video in the streaming Media Player below or attached and/or linked above with each resource listed. As a reminder, additional Learning Resources for the week are listed below the Media Player. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to view the complete list of Required and/or Optional Resources.
If you experience technical difficulties viewing the Course Media through the Media Player, please contact your Student Support Team at 1-800-WALDENU or [email protected]
Discussion: Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
The six Ps in the title of this Discussion, “Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance,” indicate the value of planning. When healthcare leaders and managers carefully plan their goals and strategies for the long-term as well as the short-term and involve the right stakeholders and fully understand their perspectives, this helps the organization be more strategic in attaining its current and future goals.
To prepare for this Discussion:
- Consider the role of the healthcare manager or leader in strategic planning in healthcare settings.
- Review the case study provided in your course text: Last Chance Hospital.
By Day 4
Post a comprehensive response to the following:
- Using specific examples and support from the case study provided in your Learning Resources, describe the main challenges related to strategic planning in Last Chance Hospital and explain why they are challenges.
- Identify the key stakeholders in the case study. Then, explain the role, if any, each might take in strategic planning and why.
- Explain the role of a healthcare leader or manager in meeting the needs of the various stakeholders, as well as meeting the goals of the strategic plan and organization.
