Introduction

Healthcare systems just as other businesses have targets that need to be achieved (American Hospital Association, 2011). Strategic planning, which is a process of making decisions and defining direction on resource allocation, becomes handy in such situations to facilitate achievement of goals. In strategic planning healthcare systems need to define their vision and mission to achieve their objectives. Visions refer to how the healthcare system wants to be, whereas mission is its primary purpose. American Hospital Association (2011) points out that mission clearly define reasons behind the existence of the health care system and necessary actions that will aid in achieving healthcare goals. The mission of Memorial Healthcare System, as a case study, is to provide safe, quality, cost effective, patient and family-centered care, regardless of the patient’s capability to pay (Memorial Healthcare, 2011). This study attempts to describe various methods used to achieve the objectives of a strategic plan. In aIDition, it evaluates the efficacy of the Memorial Healthcare System’s strategic plan.

The healthcare system implemented Florida’s First Crew Resource Management (CRM) training advantage to achieve their goal of delivering safety healthcare service (Memorial Healthcare, 2011). The integration CRM initiatives in healthcare brought with it efficient communication and resource management proficiencies from the moneymaking aviation sector (Memorial Healthcare, 2011). This substantially improved the safety their safety delivery of services. Another strategy deployed by the Memorial healthcare is the safety alert that encourages and allows employees to express any potential safety concern (Glendale Memorial Hospital, 2009). The installation of Help Alert phone line enables patients’ relatives and friends to request for speedy help during inpatient emergencies.

Another strategic plan is the implementation of patient friendly medication arrangements (Memorial Healthcare, 2011). Memorial was among the first healthcare providers to integrate this arrangement in their system. The patient friendly medication arrangements work in partnership with the Patient and Family Advisory Councils to avail information and develop healthcare partnerships (Memorial Healthcare, 2011). This strategic plan is significant in achieving the objective of the healthcare, which is to provide quality services among others.

The provision of patient satisfaction survey as a strategic plan is essential in improving the delivery of quality services (Glendale Memorial Hospital, 2009). Patients send the surveys to a reliable agency that compares and analyses patients’ views concerning the quality of the services. More importantly, the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare providers publish the satisfaction outcomes regularly to show the quality of services offered ( American Hospital Association, 2011). The statistics from the survey also shows if patients would recommend Memorial healthcare to other patients.

The Palliative Care Program as a strategic plan helps in attaining the goal of delivering patient and family-focused healthcare services. According to Glendale Memorial Hospital (2009), Memorial healthcare manages to provide supportive care and symptom management services to patients having severe or chronic diseases through implementing this program. The program is also embodied in Patient and Family resource centers that provide business services and other comforts (Glendale Memorial Hospital, 2009).

In order to deliver high quality healthcare services, Memorial values and supports its employees ( American Hospital Association, 2011). Modern healthcare magazines have ranked Memorial among the top 100 healthcare providers, which offer the best working environment in healthcare. The Florida magazine has also listed Memorial among best companies as the best employee to with in Florida (Memorial Healthcare, 2011). Recently, the Florida Hospital Association acknowledged Memorial healthcare as the best workplace for 2011. This indicates that Memorial values its employees to   the extent of being noted by the media, which also advertises its services to the public.

Memorial regularly recognizes employees, physicians, contract staff and volunteers who participate in making Memorial healthcare an exceptional healthcare provider (Glendale Memorial Hospital, 2009). This is to achieve the mission of providing patient and family-focused healthcare.

Pharmacy savings and free medication programs as a strategic plan facilitates the acquisition of medical care by patients with or without the ability to pay (Memorial Healthcare, 2011). An example is the 340B Federal Pharmacy saving program, which enables patients to purchase medicines at significant discounts. Moreover, Memorial’s staff helps patients to apply for certain free medications from pharmaceutical companies (Memorial Healthcare, 2011).

The adoption of this strategic plan brings with it strengths and weakness. The plan is effective in that it improves the health of the community from various dimensions.  As a result, the health of the poor households is improved. The ranking by healthcare magazine indicates that Memorial’s plan is efficient. The major weakness of Memorials plan is that it seems expensive to implement ( American Hospital Association, 2011). The hospital has to channel resources to meet their goal of providing quality and affordable healthcare services to people. Components of the plan, including CRM initiatives, satisfaction surveys, medical discounts, Palliative Care Programs and employee support programs, need capital to implement (Memorial Healthcare, 2011). As a result, the hospital might face financial issues that will deter the achievement of their goal. The diverse healthcare services provided by Memorial shows the effectiveness of their plans in fighting against illnesses.

In conclusion, Memorial implemented various strategies such as Crew Resource Management (CRM) training initiative, patient friendly medication schedules, patient satisfaction survey, Palliative Care Program, Pharmacy savings and free medication programs to achieve their goals. The strategic plan used is effective since it improves the health of the community from various dimensions. The major weakness of Memorials plan is that it seems expensive to implement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

American Hospital Association. ( 2011). AHA guide to the health care field. Chicago: Healthcare Infosource, Inc.

Glendale Memorial Hospital. (2009). An integrated approach. The Well Street Journal, 6-12.

Memorial Healthcare. (2011). 2011 Annual Report. Florida: Memorial Healthcare. Retrieved from Memorial Healthcare System.