When actions and decisions are produced in a disciplined manner, they culminate into strategic planning process. Before initiating strategic planning process at the IT department of the New Castle Hospital, it is necessary to identify the key individuals who will be involved. These include the planning team, board of directors, staff and clients.
Second, it is also necessary to make use of planning so that the best results can be attained. In this case, the basic planning model will work quite well with the hospital’s ED information system. This model will assist in setting up and evaluating the mission statement of the hospital, goals and objectives to be met, approaches or strategies to be used in meeting the goals, viable action plans, and establishing functional strategic action plans.
Third, the specific issues hampering the operation of the Information Technology department should be listed down. For example, poorly trained members of staff are one of the key challenges facing the department in the hospital. Listing down the challenges will assist in prioritizing specific needs that demand to be given rapid attention.
Thereafter, the plan ought to be explained and eventually adopted by the top organ of the management team drawn form the hospital. Future meetings can be planned by the board in order to deliberate the emerging issues. The planning process should be accorded adequate time. A facilitator can also be used in this process. Finally, the progress of the plan should be checked out on a regular basis.
Some of the factors listed in the case include competition, poor reimbursement, alienation of workforce due to six months of strike, and reduced public confidence. Moreover, the hospital’s capital reserves were depleted due to heavy financial losses. The board and the management team’s neglect also took place for several years. Out of the challenges noted above, overcoming financial difficulty that is currently being faced by the hospital will not be easy.
Even though management teams can be re-constituted, it is imperative to mention that the New Castle Hospital has undergone gross financial losses for a long time. In particular, the hospital’s facility demands additional investment in most departments so as to revamp the services being offered to clients. At the same time, the hospital consumes a lot in terms of the recurrent expenditures such as wages and salaries for employees.
Unless external sources of funding the hospital’s activities are sought, restoring the facility to its past financial status will remain cumbersome. As it stands now, the ED physician management teams are not willing to accommodate changes. There is lack of vital data for managing the ED. The hospital does not have a formal strategic action plan. There is no IT steering committee besides lack of essential training for IT staff. These limitations demand adequate financial resources.
The strategic plan of the ED IS will indeed yield positive results if all the recommendations put forward by the new CEO are executed. For instance, change management is one of the core proposals of the new CEO. If members of staff are made to understand the importance of embracing change, the emergency department will immensely benefit due to the viable ideas.
The performance of this hospital cannot improve if change is resisted by employees. In addition, if the key ED processes are informed and not merely programmed in an automated system, it will be possible to improve the information system services at the ED of the New Castle hospital because the daily census reports shall be reconciled in the most effective manner.