Regardless of your hospital's specific integration model, hospital-owned physician practices must adopt a more disciplined approach to strategic planning to ensure future success. Key considerations include establishing the future value of the practice enterprise, sustaining the long-term viability of the practice, supporting the success of the enterprise and achieving hospital-wide business objectives. The following points outline best practices for a successful strategic planning process.
1. Review the hospital's strategic plan and understand how the practice can have an impact in achieving the overall vision of the enterprise and what needs to happen to remain consistent with the parameters of the overall plan.2.
2. Develop a vision statement for the practice. Put a stake in the ground as to where the practice will be in 3 to 5 years. Craft a clear, compelling and measurable statement that the entire organization can buy in to. The vision is the future picture of success.
3. Further resolve the future picture of the practice through developing the desired effects of the following key descriptors:
6. Prioritize the key initiatives based upon their return on investment. An easy way to assess the ROI is to map these initiatives by their magnitude on impact on the organization (compared to the key descriptors above) and the ease of implementation. Those initiatives with the highest impact and are the easiest to implement move to Phase I of the strategic plan.
7. Measure, innovate and measure again.
8. The annual business plan should be subordinate to and actually derive from this strategic plan.
9. Plan in the open and include the entire staff in developing the action plans. This will engage them and give them ownership in achieving the future picture.
10. Communicate the vision and progress on the plan on a regular basis both internally and externally. This will insure that everyone knows you are serious about reaching the vision.
Learn more about Paragon Health.
1. Review the hospital's strategic plan and understand how the practice can have an impact in achieving the overall vision of the enterprise and what needs to happen to remain consistent with the parameters of the overall plan.2.
2. Develop a vision statement for the practice. Put a stake in the ground as to where the practice will be in 3 to 5 years. Craft a clear, compelling and measurable statement that the entire organization can buy in to. The vision is the future picture of success.
3. Further resolve the future picture of the practice through developing the desired effects of the following key descriptors:
- Financial position: What is the future financial position of the practice expressed in a dollar value, value, profit, equity, etc.?
- Market position: Will the practice be a leader, a follower, a dominator, a challenger or a scavenger?
- Business areas: What are the service areas you passionately intend to pursue — or exit?
- Innovation: Will your processes focus on sustaining or disrupting your business model from both external and internal perspectives?
- Insider perception: How insiders (staff) perceive the organization?
- Outsider perception: How outsiders (patients, your hospital and referring physicians) view the practice?
- Workforce characteristics: What defines the essence of your future staff? What are the skills required to achieve this?
- Brand: Is a brand important for the practice? If yes, where will you focus on brand development: services, channel, consumer, and/or provider?
- Corporate culture: How will you function? What will your internal operating system look like? What processes will you deploy to achieve your future picture?
- Corporate citizenship: What non-business activities and philanthropic activities will the practice pursue?
- Incentive philosophy: How will you reward your people?
- Understand both the internal and external forces that can impact the achievement of the future picture. Conduct a forward-looking assessment and define what can get in the way of achieving the vision. Map these forces as to their likelihood of occurrence and their magnitude of impact. This will help further resolve where you will need to develop action plans and deploy resources.
6. Prioritize the key initiatives based upon their return on investment. An easy way to assess the ROI is to map these initiatives by their magnitude on impact on the organization (compared to the key descriptors above) and the ease of implementation. Those initiatives with the highest impact and are the easiest to implement move to Phase I of the strategic plan.
7. Measure, innovate and measure again.
8. The annual business plan should be subordinate to and actually derive from this strategic plan.
9. Plan in the open and include the entire staff in developing the action plans. This will engage them and give them ownership in achieving the future picture.
10. Communicate the vision and progress on the plan on a regular basis both internally and externally. This will insure that everyone knows you are serious about reaching the vision.
Learn more about Paragon Health.