AND THREATS (SWOT) -
OUR LADY OF KRISTIN COMMUNITY HOSPITAL (OLKC)
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities
And Threats (SWOT) -
Our Lady of Kristin Community Hospital (OLKC)
Introduction
Using the SWOT analysis tool provides a framework for the potential of the Our Lady of Kristin Community Hospital (OLKC) as a promising new enterprise (Goodrich, 2015) and important for taking strategic management focus. Saint Theresa University Medical Center (STUMC) is a large academic medical facility in an urban area. Over the next year one of its main goals is to expand into the suburban community by opening a new community hospital, OLKC to further serve the needs of its ever-expanding market share. OLKC is located in a suburb approximately 15 miles outside the city. OLKC has 205 inpatient beds and averages 8,400 inpatient admissions and 67,000 outpatient visits annually.
SWOT
Strengths
According to the SWOT framework examining the strengths of the organizational marketing plan for the OLKC provides an in depth review of factors giving the company an edge over its competitors. As the first component of the internal aspects of the organization strengths include loyalty among the staff, effective cost containment, management productivity. The outcomes of surveys reveal the loyalty level of long-tenured medical staff shows this loyalty runs very deep emotionally. Further, to this caliber of staffing loyalty and satisfaction is ongoing quality performance based on ethical practices to ensure integrity aimed at customer satisfaction. Many of the patients have long standing relations with the medical facility since birth as a part of the community. Leadership among long-tenured employees is also another strength of the organization having the caliber and commitment bringing their experience to the project. Connected to the well-established St. Theresa University Medical Center (STUMC) the expansion of OLKC. The inpatient rehabilitation and psychiatric facilities are in addition to the Robotics Epicenter, the Alternative Birthing, the SAR, and Wound Care/HBOT. The financial statement and spread sheet show assets as limited to use, of net amounts as required for meeting current financial obligations but also as outlined by Chang (2010) provides an idea of the sensitivity to the “financial performance relative to the changes of specific input variables (p. 56).”
Weaknesses
Too many quality physicians are exiting and replacements not keeping pace with
exodus as well as not enough physicians filling any of the service categories. The uninsured and underinsured patients are clogging the emergency department system. Other issues with the infrastructure is the need to improve the physical environment. Further weaknesses connect to marketing strategies and the lack of a website for the organization.
Opportunities
Opportunities exist for adding both IM and FM physicians as well as other medical specialists aligned to reconnecting with current staff/splitters. Centralized scheduling allows for improving coordinating patient visits combined with more accurate patient information. The centralized scheduling also offers the opportunities for flexibility between the scheduled urgent care (RF) /fast track (WSMC) appointments and the WSMC/RF Campus. Further is the opportunity for alignment with the ACO/PHO and taking advantage of the university teaching hospital status. Other opportunities align to the strategic planning objectives. These include the outcomes of conducting a cultural assessment determining if there exists opportunity for further improving quality, staff development, customer service, ownership and accountability. Market assessment opportunities can provide prospectus for financial opportunities in the marketplace connected to growth and development goals. With the goal of quantifying the demand for existing services as an analytical foundation this frames the opportunity for planning and developing the hospital’s approach to serving the community. Creating the opportunities for understanding the perspectives and needs of key stakeholders such as the physicians, community leaders, district residents, businesses and payers remains fundamental to the aggressive business management approach to the project.
Threats
There is the potential threat existing as connected to any under tone of an overall fear and perception pervading the community that WH may be closed. The fact Loyola/Gottlieb/Elmhurst continues aggressively hiring PCP’s and specialists puts competition for drawing the much needed medical professionals for recruitment to the proposed expansion. This poses a real threat for filling the existing gaps because of the current slow recruitment outcomes filling those spots left vacant from personnel leaving.
Competition’s ACO/PHO alignment poses a threat. Community perception that WS is an inner city hospital serving one of the most violent and lowest of socioeconomic neighborhoods in Chicago sets a potential threat to successfully drawing the clientele to the facility. The threat of competition from the low pricing freestanding imaging centers is real.
Conclusion
The above SWOT analysis as intended successfully provides a framework for the potential of OLKC as a promising new enterprise and showed how applying SWOT proved an important strategic management focus. In completing the above SWOT the strategic management applications for the project now can make decisions affecting the long-term success for establishing the proposed business endeavor with an informed framework for doing so.
References
Chang, C.M. (2010). Service Systems Management and Engineering: Creating Strategic Differentiation and Operational Excellence. John Wiley & Sons, INC.
Goodrich, R. (2015). SWOT Analysis: Examples, Templates, and Definition. Retrieved from
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4245-swot-analysis.html
