Introduction
Strategic planning can be defined as the process by which an organization creates a guiding document used in directing a business from its current position to meeting its future goals in the most efficient way possible. Therefore, the tool helps the management to identify the current traits of the business and generates a vision that indicates the future goals of the firm. Strategic planning assists in determining the strategy through which future goals of the company can be met. It is worth acknowledging that strategic management is an important tool used in the management of health care organizations.
The success of this vital tool has made health care organizations in different parts of the globe to develop some that are unique to their organizations. According to Harrison & Thompson (2015), organizational leaders have found that embracing strategic thinking and planning is useful in the health care sector. Therefore, the tool (strategic management) has proofed to be a useful aspect in the administration of health care organizations. This paper seeks to justify how an organization can successfully employ the use of strategic management in the administration of health care organizations. This includes identification of the concerned stakeholders and ensuring that their target needs are met in the most efficient way possible. Moreover, the study plans to justify how organizational managers can apply strategic management and ensure that the business strategies are in line with the corporate visions and mission
Main Body
Identifying internal and external stakeholders
A stakeholder is considered as an individual or organization that can assist or restrict a business from achieving its set plans. Use of hierarchical framework will significantly help in the identification of the concerned stakeholders. As suggested by Harrison & Thompson (2015), stakeholders have something to lose or gain in any planning of project hence vital in the management of any organization. This paper will use the example of Lee Memorial Hospital and will seek to identify the key stakeholders to the hospital.
Different types of stakeholders influence Lee Memorial Hospital and include external, internal, and interface stakeholders. External stakeholders will include the providers of input to the hospitals such as suppliers, patients, competitors and the community. Interface stakeholders, on the other hand, are associated with the interface amid the organization and its setting. Internal stakeholders deal with operations within an organization and its setting. Primary stakeholders are the direct beneficiaries of the hospital and are involved in enforcing effective policies to manage the business, and this includes owners and the local government.
It is worth appreciating that different stakeholders have diverse roles to the hospital as will be outlined shortly. For instance, government as the external stakeholder ensures that equitable health care is provided to all. This includes ensuring that health care is accessible and affordable to all members of the community whatsoever. The government through the hospital strives to reduce or eliminate any communicable diseases. The healthcare providers such as doctors and nurses are included as part of the internal stakeholders, as they are associated with ensuring that the health care objectives are attained. This goes hand in hand with the hospital administrators and the governing bodies, who are dedicated to the success of the health care facility.
Clients
This includes the patients that pay regular visits to the hospital to obtain health care services or advisory. The hospital has to identify the diverse needs of the above group of stakeholders and identify appropriate strategies by which their needs can be met. To address the needs of the above group, the clients have to be subdivided further into groups based on their demographic or socioeconomic attributes.
Competitors
This is another significant class of stakeholders that are important to Lee Memorial Hospital and are related to the hospital as they compete for patients with similar needs. Competitors are distinguished based on the nature and quality of services they offer to the public. It is worth acknowledging that competitors are a vital source of learning to the different health care organization such as Lee Memorial Hospital.
Differentiating between internal and external stakeholders
Internal stakeholders refer to the various groups of people within an organization who have an interest in the business success or failure. Such individuals are directly influenced by the firm and may be rewarded or punished based on the outcome of the business. Examples of internal stakeholders include employees, hospital managers, leaders and owners among other significant stakeholders. It is worth appreciating that internal stakeholders have a different set of priorities and values from the external stakeholders (Mazur & Pisarski, 2015). Hence, each stakeholder in a health organization such as for the case of Lee Memorial Hospital may have overlapping or conflicting interests compared to that of other stakeholders. The most significant concern of the internal stakeholders is making sure that the hospital attains its set objectives in the most efficient way. Hence, such individuals are determined to make the business to succeed.
However, the interests of the internal stakeholders may still vary from one group to another. For instance, while the employees are concerned about their rewards and pay, other interested parties in the same group will be concerned about the business success. Hence, the management of the hospital must seek to identify and meet the different needs of the stakeholders other than accomplishing objectives of one group, which is detrimental. Some of the significant concerns of the internal stakeholders include aspects like ethical standards to be observed by the hospital and the extent to which they ought to be followed.
Diagram 1: (Boundless, 2016) Showing Internal and External Stakeholders
External stakeholders, on the other hand, have different priorities from the other group of stakeholders (Abidin, 2015). Moreover, some of the examples of external stakeholders include the clients, community members, the local and national government, non-government organizations among others.
Mission
The mission of Lee Memorial Hospital is “To Continue to meet the health care needs and improve the health status of the people of Southwest Florida.” The above statement defines the aim of the hospital as a medical institution and explains its purpose to the different stakeholders that depend on it. Moreover, it further states the target population that it intends to meet their needs in the area by providing quality, ethical and efficient health care services. Therefore, the management has to plan o how the hospital will achieve the set mission in the most effective manner possible.
Vision
The vision statement of Lee Hospital is written to help the strategic planners in getting a clear picture of the future expectation of the company’s future image. Therefore, the content of the vision statement indicates the real image of what the health organization aspires to be. Therefore, concerned stakeholders are informed through the vision of the future expectation of the organization.
Business units
Stakeholder support is a necessity for the success of any organization, and Lee Memorial Hospital is not an exception. Stakeholders ought to be involved in strategic planning of the hospital activities to enhance support. This is because different stakeholders offer varied suggestions on how the hospital should be managed to meet the desired outcomes. Moreover, stakeholders assist in the evaluation and continuous quality management, which is a plus to the health care facility. Some of the significant stakeholders that should be included in support of the strategic initiatives of the firm include agency leadership, providers, and the state legislature.
The justification of using this crucial group of stakeholders is that strategic planning will involve concerned stakeholders at every stage of the business. This will include the successful establishment of the proper strategies to employ and long-term support of the set initiatives. Developing relationship with agency leadership will ensure that hospital activities and initiatives are properly managed for the purpose of program success. This includes making the concerned stakeholders understand their goals in the organization and expected the outcome (Starks et al., 2015). Providers as part of the vital group of stakeholders will ensure that optimum care is offered to patients. The state legislature has a jurisdiction of ensuring that the hospital is allocated adequate resources to support its operations. This will be a significant concern in meeting the set initiatives.
The perspective of each of the identified stakeholders concerning vision and mission statements
All the identified key stakeholders to the hospital have a crucial in the attainment of the vision and mission of the hospital. For instance, the leadership team is determined in choosing the most efficient strategies to employ and making everyone concerned about realizing the organizational goals. On the other hand, the providers are dedicated to the provision of optimum health care which corresponds with the goals of the hospital. Finally, about the organization’s vision and mission, the Legislature can determine how much resources to allocate to the hospital for its to succeed.
Organization’s approach to addressing recent health care legislation
The different stakeholders identified (providers, legislators, and agency leadership) all have specific roles to perform in the implementation of changes over the last legislation. The strategies that will be employed by agency leadership include setting realistic goals. Moreover, they will evaluate the recent growth based on the decreasing costs and hence determine the future expectation of the hospital (Nudurupati et al., 2015). The state legislature will emphasize the need to enhance improvements in the health care organization hence an effective strategy towards attaining set vision. It will concentrate on few measures that are expected to improve the quality of care provided at the hospital.
Conclusion
Strategic management is the key to success of any organization as it ensures that organizational goals are met in the most efficient way. In the current global setting, engaging key stakeholders as for the case of Lee Memorial Hospital is the key to the success of the business. Therefore, organizational management has to come up with proper strategies through which they can adequately manage their stakeholders to ensure that their needs are satisfied. This will be an efficient strategy through which the organizational goals will be met.
References
Abidin, M. (2015). Higher Education Quality: Perception Differences among Internal and External Stakeholders. International Education Studies, 8(12), 185-192.
Boundless, 2016. Internal Stakeholders. Retrieved September 2, 2016 from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/ethics-in-business-13/business-stakeholders-96/internal-stakeholders-451-7622/images/stakeholders-fb908aeb-9778-477a-a127-214efe6c36cb/
Harrison, J. S., & Thompson, S. M. (2015). Strategic Management of Healthcare Organizations : A Stakeholder Management Approach. New York, New York [222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017]
Mazur, A. K., & Pisarski, A. (2015). Major project managers' internal and external stakeholder relationships: The development and validation of measurement scales. International Journal of Project Management, 33(8), 1680-1691.
Starks, H., Shaw, J. L., Hiratsuka, V., Dillard, D. A., & Robinson, R. (2015). Engaging stakeholders to develop a depression management decision support tool in a tribal health system. Quality of Life Research, 24(5), 1097-1105.
