Healthcare Management Essay

When creating a strategic business plan, one of the most important analysis tools that can help management identify areas that need improvement and the areas that are strong and already beneficial to the company is a SWOT analysis. Using this tool management can determine the parts of a business that may need more of their time and resources in order to outcome obstacles that may prevent growth. In this paper, we will create a SWOT analysis for our fictitious company Vandalay Healthcare Inc. Strategic Healthcare Plan A SWOT analysis is a tool that can be used by management to measure or audit the organization as a whole. SWOT is an acronym for the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats by internal and external that can effect and hinder a company in various ways. Using the SWOT analysis a company can learn to identify the parts of a business that are helping the business grow and the same analysis can identify areas where the business can make improvements (Marketing Teacher, 2012). The greatest distinguished features that management should include when creating a SWOT analysis is, where the business is today and where it hopes to be in the future, and the analysis should be subjective and specific, the most effective analysis are short and direct. The SWOT that was created for the fictitious company, Vandalay Healthcare Inc., is as follows: SWOT Analysis Vandalay Healthcare Inc. The goals for Vandalay Healthcare Inc., as defined in the company’s mission and vision statements is to become one of the most successful company’s in the field of Certified Life Care Planning, and also to build the company to maintain a certain level of integrity. The external and internal environments that would directly affect this company can possibly cause the company to become in financial trouble at some point, since the knowledge of the field is expanding and the threats of medical advancements could hinder the need for this type of business, the company can be tempted to cut corners. However, by instilling the vision and mission statement the company was founded and expanded on, the possibilities to allow this type of behavior can decrease by over 75%. A continuous improvement plan is defined as a process that continues to bring gradual change to a business (O’Hara, 2012). In the development of the continuous improvement plan the company must first decide where they plan on going in the future. For Vandalay Healthcare Inc., the company has already established the desire to be one of the best CLCP types of companies in existence. The best way to achieve this is by evaluating the outcome measures for the company. The outcomes are specifically the results achieved by the interaction of the patient/client and the business (Mireles, n.d.). To measure the outcomes Vandalay Healthcare Inc., will provide survey cards to be completed by clients, which will be done on an anonymous basis. By allowing the clients/patients to complete the surveys on an anonymous basis, the company can indicate the areas in the service sector that may have issues as well as eliminate any gaps that can occur in the performance areas of a business. The vision and mission statements for Vandalay Healthcare Inc. are as follows: In the next few years, Vandalay Healthcare Inc. will have succeeded in establishing a name for itself within the field of Certified Life Care Planner by being an honest organization that focuses 100% on patient care. And the mission statement for Vandalay Healthcare Inc., is: âž ¢Patient Care Mission – to provide the best care to every patient regardless of the ethnic, cultural, or demographic background âž ¢Community Mission – provide support within the community by providing honest medical care âž ¢Economic Mission – operate and grow the organization at a profitable rate through sound economic decisions The SWOT analysis and the continuous improvement plan are both focusing on the constant improvement of patient care. Our company’s mission and vision statements are both also directly focused on the patient care. The company’s service strategy is related to the environment of the facility itself. The environment includes the employees, having the proper training and the company being adequately staffed to accommodate clients in a timely and professional manner. And the setting and following guidelines set forth by government agencies to ensure the moral and ethical standards of the company are higher then the others, as to set Vandalay Healthcare Inc. on a different level then similar companies within the same industry. By adhering to each of these goals, such as the mission statement, the vision statement and the intended service strategy, Vandalay Healthcare Inc. can set new standards within the healthcare industry, and this can be beneficial to the healthcare organization as a whole be causing other agencies to also raise the quality of care their patients may currently receive. Reference: Marketing Teacher. (2012). SWOT Analysis. Retrieved on July 8, 2012, from http://www.marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-swot.html Mireles, Sandra. (n.d.). How to Measure Outcomes & Evaluations. Retrieved on July 8, 2012, from http://www.ehow.com/how_6578817_measure-outcomes-evaluations.html O’Hara, Jane. (2012). How to Develop a Continuous Improvement Plan. Retrieved on July 8, 2012, from http://www.ehow.com/how_8054214_develop-continuous-improvement-plan.html