Mission and Organizational Objectives
Strategic planning approaches usually address issues of mission, vision, and organizational values. In the previous milestone, the mission of Kaiser Permanente Clinic was to reduce the waiting period by shortening the waiting list for emergency care for its patients. This meets patients’ expectations of getting patient-centered health care services. The clinic’s management has good intentions and plans for the business because this will automatically attract many clients due to their satisfaction and quality of services (Swayne, 2016). Reducing the patient’s waiting period on the waiting list is a good idea and an organizational objective.
Most patients going through different aims usually feel neglected, not recognized, and bored by the clinic services if subjected to long waiting queues before being attended to. However, this will also come with other burdens, which must be included for success. For example, the solutions state that there must be an increased workforce. Increasing the number of doctors, nurses, and other office resources for efficient work will help realize these goals.
Emergency care is critical and needs to be prioritized because it involves patients in critical condition who face death threats if not properly attended to. The long waiting list is dangerous, and it is wise for the Kaiser clinic management to prioritize this in its mission statement. In addition, despite the organization’s intent to be patient-centered, such long waits for patients to be admitted to emergency care would negatively impact overall healthcare at the facility. Thus, solving a problem in the hospital’s emergency section would conform to the clinic’s desire to be patient-centered and provide excellent services to all patients.
Kaiser Permanente Clinic’s mission, vision, and values emphasize patient-centered care, excellence, and volunteerism. Consequently, the organization’s strategic planning must conform to these principles. The case study revolves around the clinic’s emergency health department, which is faced with the problem of long waiting lines. Thus, the management must plan to eliminate this problem while conforming to the organization’s vision, mission, and values.
Prevailing Issue
The prevailing issue in question in this case study is the long waiting times for patients in the clinic. The problem affects not only Kaiser Permanente clinics but also the healthcare sector (Swayne, 2016). The best strategic planning for these concerns is increasing the workforce and resources, such as equipment. This will guarantee timely attention to such patients and probably reduce deaths and severe pain associated with late medical attention, even after reaching the hospital. Therefore, healthcare organizations should be careful when formulating their mission and vision statements because these are priority objectives and should always involve patient-centered care.
Healthcare managers have several roles to play in terms of strategic planning. A manager must be able to identify the institution’s weaknesses and strengths in time before suffering the effects. Managers must understand the organization’s plan, vision, and mission and devise ways of achieving such goals (Lieu & Madvig, 2019). Therefore, the health manager ensures all gaps are filled by acquiring the necessary resources and providing moral guidance toward achieving the goals.
For example, the manager must prioritize expanding the working space by building more offices and equipment for patients in emergency care. This must come before bringing in the doctors, and other issues follow in the order of priorities. Healthcare managers are team players and role models to their employees. They must encourage and motivate other workers to realize the objectives in the strategic plan, and they always need help making the medical equipment and other resources available on time for efficiency and convenience.
Key Stakeholders
The key stakeholders involved in this strategic plan include the management, organization employees, and the patients themselves. Of course, other stakeholders are less key than those mentioned above, like the government, which issues the permits and licenses of operations, creditors, or organization supplies (Swayne, 2016). However, it is the clinic management’s duty and responsibility to make all operating factors available.
Some of their duties include ensuring enough skilled staff, building enough space for patients and staff offices, assembling necessary medical equipment, and meeting all clinic dues on time. The management should notice any shortage, poor performance, or lack of service and take the necessary interventions to improve such a situation (Ginter et al., 2018). Such issues affect the whole institution, but it is their role to play by taking part in strategic planning and coming up with solutions to such problems.
The employees are the other stakeholders affected by these issues of poor services, as stated in the mission statement. While they try to affect services, it becomes difficult when they need more resources. Being few workers means working long hours without a break, being overworked, and getting poor patient ratings because of delays and confusion (Swayne, 2016).
The third affected stakeholders are the patients because they are the main clients. Patients have a role in strategic planning because, through their complaints, compliments, and opinions of the management, their cries can be heard. There is also the freedom to communicate ideas, complaints, or recommendations through the institution’s suggestion box. These methods directly or indirectly contribute to the strategic planning scheme.
References
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations. Wiley.
Lieu, T. A., & Madvig, P. R. (2019). Strategies for building delivery science in an integrated health care system. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 34(6), 1043–1047. Web.
Swayne, D. (2016). Kaiser Permanente: Creating a No-Wait Emergency Department. Richard Ivey Publishing.