SWOT analysis
Strengths
- The hospital has been in existence for the past 100 years growing from a small community hospital to its current size
- The hospital is a community icon
- The hospital boasts facilities for tertiary care
- Its geographical location is in a growing city, Chicago
- The hospital is owned by a large university medical centre. The centre is quite progressive in its approach to patient care and staff development.
- The hospital has experienced staff, some of whom have worked in there for many years.
- There is a strong bond between staff members and board of directors
Weaknesses
- The hospital lacks nursing managers
- It lacks operation efficiency. The transfer of patients from ED to the clinical units often takes long and occurs at night. The work load is left to the pm shift nurses
- The hospital’s finances are not in order. It has been losing a lot of money recently. It has been receiving rescue funds from other institutions.
- There is a high level of patient dissatisfaction. They made to wait for long to be transferred to clinical units. This also affects the overall output of the hospital.
- The morale of pm nurses is low because they are left to handle huge workloads. The nurses cannot make simple decisions without consulting supervisors. They seem stagnant and non-productive
- The hospital may lack sufficient funds to pay the salaries of nurse managers and to raise their education level. It may also lack the funds to recruit new nurse mangers with higher education levels
Opportunities
- The healthcare industry has changed allowing nurse managers to head various care units. The nurses are not under any union and are expected to assume a 24-hour responsibility for patient care. This is a change from the previous system where head nurses and assistant head nurses could only work on an 8 hour shift and they belonged to unions.
- The change to using nurse managers has the potential to improve the internal efficiency of health care facilities. This is in addition to improving the overall functioning of the facilities by increasing the level of productivity and reducing the cost of operation.
- Changes of guard in top leadership give the hospital an opportunity to change the old traditional culture of operation and adapt to a goal oriented organizational culture.
- Since the hospital is under the ownership of a large university medical centre, it is likely to benefit from technological innovation and development. By gaining state of the art facilities for research, the institution can be used as a referral hospital. It can also assume a leadership position in provision of healthcare within its geographical location.
- There is potential partnership with other organization to improving operation efficiency.
Threats
- The hospital’s patient satisfaction level is low, making it vulnerable to losing business. The decrease in satisfaction score is a result of the inefficiency at the ED unit.
- The hospital also suffers a threat of losing reputation because local media is reporting of the declining level of health care provision at the hospital. This is likely to ruin business considering the fact that it is currently a private hospital owned by an academic institution.
- Most nurses do not have the required level of education to allow the required changes to take place. The current market demand for nurses does not only depend on their experiences but also their level of education. Having nurses with higher education level increases their independence in decision making at their units of operation thereby increasing level of productivity. Currently, the hospital’s nurses seek guidance from their supervisors for almost anything. They even lack the ability to make individual decisions on small problems.
- The organizational culture also poses a threat to the institution. Changing the culture may not happen over a short period of time. It is a process that will take a long time considering the fact that Dr. M may use the existing staff to implement the changes.
- Finances also offer a threat to the institution. The hospital has been operating at a high cost and experiencing a lot of wastage. This would pose a threat to its goals of increasing the salaries of nurse managers, raising the education level of nurse mangers, and recruiting qualified nurses.
- Lastly, there is the threat of convincing nurses to leave the workers union. All nurses who will be expected to work as managers will be subjected under conditions not favoured by unions. They will have a 24 hour schedule. For the nurses to accept this schedule from their previous 8 hour shifts may be difficult. Even with the motivation of financial benefits, this may prove difficult for Dr. M.
Discussion
The fact that the hospital has been in existence for the last 100 years establishes its reputation within the immediate community as well the neighbouring community. Even with the privatization, the hospital stands a better chance to be a reliable health facility within the surrounding environment. Furthermore, the fact that it is currently owned by a university medical centre establishes it as a medical research institution which is likely to attract funding for research. The hospital also has experienced staff members who can be trained to adjust to the need for efficiency.
In terms of weaknesses, the internal inefficiency is a major drawback for the hospital. There is too much time and resource waste which lowers the overall level of productivity for the hospital. Time is an important factor in healthcare. Medical practitioners have to act in good time to attend to patients. If patients are kept waiting for long periods, their situations can worsen. Improving time efficiency is important because it can translate to increased financial yield for the hospital.
There are numerous external opportunities available for the hospital based on the analysis of its strengths. Creation of nurse managers offers a good opportunity for the hospital to improve its internal operations (Beattie, Check, & Gibson, 2006). In addition, changing the leadership is ideal for changing organizational culture to be goal oriented.
The internal inefficiency as well as the external environment creates a number of threats to the hospital. The hospital is at the brink of losing its reputation because of media reports about poor services. In addition, market demand for nurses requires a higher educational level most nurses in the hospital do not have.
Recommendation
Based on the SWOT analysis, the hospital needs to act fast to make the necessary changes. Clearly, there is need to change and improve the internal operation. The idea has to be bought by everyone because it takes all the parties involved to implement the changes.
Reference
Beattie, J., Check, J., & Gibson, T. (2006). Nurses and Medications: Developing your professional practice. Underdale: Document services.