Introduction
The healthcare sector has gained competition in the current environment with the emergence of numerous facilities. Healthcare organizations are responsible for providing quality services to their clients by saving lives and ensuring everyone has a healthy lifestyle. The concept of quality care has been stressed out to be a keen factor in ensuring customer satisfaction. Technology has had an impact on how most organizations offer customer services. Technology has aided in treating chronic diseases through the establishment of new forms of equipment and treatment. SWOT analysis is crucial in identifying external and internal factors affecting operations to evaluate competition in an environment. A SWOT analysis demonstrates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats an organization may face in the environment. Thus, the organization can evaluate its market position and determine the decisions stakeholders should make to improve care. In Florida, the Walker Jones Medical Center is one healthcare facility that has initiated cardiovascular services.
The healthcare competition has been so stiff that organizations should seek new strategies to gain an advantage. Through technology and innovation, facilities achieve a competitive advantage over others. Modern equipment and advanced skills enable clinicians to treat chronic diseases. The Walker Jones Memorial Medical Center in Florida has strategized its operations by adapting cardiovascular services (Benzaghta et al., 2021). Therefore, a SWOT analysis will help to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats the medical facilities face and how they can develop a strategic plan to remain significant in the environment.
Strengths
The Walker Jones Memorial Medical Center has increased its level of services to its patients by successfully incorporating cardiovascular services. Additionally, it signifies much integration into modern technology, which aids accuracy, and customer satisfaction, securing more clients and generating more revenue. More so, introducing these services implies hiring more clinicians and enjoying the benefit of new skills. Further, through technology, the Walker Jones Memorial Medical Center offers its clinicians and patients Continuing Education Units (CUE) to improve their skills and knowledge. This will help to achieve the ultimate goal of patient-centered care hence providing quality services.
Weaknesses
Cardiovascular services have not been functional in the organization before, thus facing a challenge of enough skills. Therefore, it has to rely on new nurses and clinicians from outside who may affect the organizational reputation. For instance, these new employees are unfamiliar with the organizations’ norms, and it may be challenging to gain patients’ trust. An efficient and effective clinician-patient relationship is essential since it determines how clients have been treated and their willingness to acquire healthcare services (Zepeda et al., 2020). The organization faces a challenge in maintaining cardiovascular equipment once it fails since it demands specialists and high technological essentials.
Opportunities
Defining opportunities would enable the Walker Jones Memorial Medical Center to remain competitive and generate more revenue. First, there is less competition from other facilities within their location. Numerous individuals tend to reside in a state with advanced technological services, thus providing an opportunity for an increased client base. Acquisition of new clinicians will likely lead to new incorporation of new skills and ideas. Another opportunity is enjoying massive finances through client return; this shows that it can gain a competitive advantage by expanding its premises. Therefore, cardiovascular services prove outstanding to the Walker Jones Memorial Medical Center through client retention and gaining wide acceptability across Florida (Zepeda et al., 2020). Further, the organization can capitalize on information by conducting regular market research to improve creativity and proactivity than others.
Threats
These represent the external factors that could destabilize a healthcare facility’s strategies and prevent them from competing. The major threat to cardiovascular services is the existence of another healthcare facility that provides similar amenities. This depicts that such organizations have acquired numerous customers through their specialized services. The existing facilities enjoy a competitive advantage over the Walker Jones Memorial Medical Center. Therefore, maneuvering in the city is a significant threat since their services are new, whereas numerous clients have specific facilities where they receive treatment.
Through SWOT analysis, the Walker Jones Memorial Medical Center needs to have a strategic plan that will enable them to prosper with its services. For instance, they can begin by informing their customers about introducing a new service. This creates awareness among patients as they receive their usual treatment. Further, they can create awareness among outside customers once their internal nurses and patients are satisfied with the plan. Additionally, they can offer training to the existing clinicians rather than hiring new ones who would consume time before adapting to new technology and organizational culture (Benzaghta et al., 2021). The existing physicians would enable ease of integration of these services since they are much aware of the organizational mission and vision. Moreover, the Walker Jones Memorial Medical Center can open a new facility outside Florida to elude the current competition.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a competitive environment calls for strategic managerial actions. One of the essential requirements is ensuring the availability of resources for service delivery. Implementing new service delivery equipment aids in improving patient wellness. However, such a process encounters threats and weaknesses that can diminish an objective. Hence, stakeholders should consider navigating the market by involving clinicians, facility employees, and outside patients to identify significant concepts that would improve efficiency. Therefore, SWOT analysis proves beneficial to Walker Jones Memorial Medical Center to attain patient care and pinpoint alternative actions for successful operations.
References
Benzaghta, M. A., Elwalda, A., Mousa, M. M., Erkan, I., & Rahman, M. (2021). SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature review. Journal of Global Business Insights, 6(1), 55-73. Web.
Zepeda, E. D., Nyaga, G. N., & Young, G. J. (2020). The effect of hospital‐physician integration on operational performance: Evaluating physician employment for cardiovascular services. Decision Sciences, 51(2), 282-316. Web.