Health Care Organization Strategic Plan: The Case of Samaritan Medical Centre Strategic Planning and Organizational structure

Organization Structure

Strategic Planning and Organization Structure

Present strategy of the Organization

Environmental Analysis and Setting Strategic Goals for Samaritan Medical Center

Internal Environment Analysis

External Environment Analysis

III Financial Analysis of Samaritan Medical Center

Budget Strategy Assumptions

The elements of a projected budget

Implementation of Strategic Management

Communication of the Plan to the Employees

Evaluation and Control of Strategic Plan

Strategic Planning and Organizational structure

The process of formulation and implementation of the company objectives and goals the considerations of which are based on the resources available with the company and the internal and external environment that the company is functioning and competing in is termed a strategic planning (Nag, Hambrick & Chen, 2007).

In this context strategy can be defined as the course of action that an organization develops with the optimum use of resources with the aim of achieving its long-term goals. The process of providing guidance to the direction, focus the efforts and defining the organizational set up clearly so that a company can take steps to direct if resources and respond to a changing environment can also be defined as strategy.

Since every strategy needs a plan, therefore, the planning of a strategy is defined as strategic planning. The collection, assimilation and analysis of analytical data and such data is used as inputs in the process of strategic planning are parts of the planning process (Nag, Hambrick & Chen, 2007).

To create a strategy plan for an organization it is first important to define the mission, vision and goals of the organization. This is so because every strategy is aimed to achieve the mission vision and goals of the organization and the plan is formulated keeping in mind what is to be achieved using the resources of the organization.

Linked to the strategy formation and the achievement of the mission, vision and goals of an organization, is the aspect of the structure and culture of the organization. The structure and culture of the organization defines the way the company functions and understanding both are necessary to formulate whether a change in any of the two aspects are needed to implement a new strategy (Sheehan, 2010).

Mission, Vision and Goals of Samaritan Medical Centre

For Samaritan Medical Centre, the case at hand it is important to define and understand the mission vision and goals of the organization. It is necessary to define the vision, mission and goals of the organization both in the long-term and the short-term.

Situated at Watertown, New York, Samaritan Medical Center is a not-for-profit community medical center with 294-bed and offering a full spectrum of inpatient and outpatient healthcare services.

The civilian and the military community that are located in the area is served by the medical centre through primary and emergency care as well as highly specialized medical and surgical services that include cancer treatment, neonatal intensive care, behavioral health and addiction services and imaging services (Samaritanhealth.com, 2015).

The basic principles of the Samaritan Medical Center are quality, compassion and safety.

To serve the long-term health care needs of the community, the centre has inpatient and outpatient services and numerous community clinics and satellite testing centers. The 272-bed long-term care facility called the Samaritan Keep Home and the 288-bed long-term care facility called Samaritan Summit Village a are examples of long-term community care efforts by the centre.

Mission:

"Samaritan shall provide high quality, comprehensive, safe, and compassionate healthcare services to meet the needs of our civilian and military community" (Samaritanhealth.com, 2015)

Vision

"Samaritan will be recognized, foremost, as the preferred provider of Inpatient, Outpatient, Emergency, and Long-Term Care services in Jefferson County. Additionally, our health system will enhance selected specialty services to meet the needs of the North Country" (Samaritanhealth.com, 2015).

The values of the non-profit medical centre are honesty, empathy accountability and respect. These are termed as the 5 key values and use the acronym H.E.A.R.T. As he centre attempts to create a culture where quality care and service excellent is a collaborative processes that is accomplished in part by establishing standards of performance for all employees. The acronym H.E.A.R.T. describes the behaviors necessary for employees and leadership at SMC to provide care that is safe and compassionate while supporting the community (Samaritanhealth.com, 2015).

Organization Structure

The formal role configuration, procedures, governance and control mechanisms and authority and decision-making processes of a firm is termed as the organizational structure (Dugdale & Lyne, 2010).

Arrangement of organizational subsystems is the basis of building an organizational...

There are four basic principles that organizational structure is built upon. These are hierarchy of authority, specialization standardization or formalization and centralization.
The aim of building an organizational structure is to achieve goals and objectives that fit into the surrounding functional environment. Organizational structures typically exhibit division of work, managerial and non- managerial manpower allocation and the flow of decision, responsibility and exchange of information.

At the Samaritan Medical Center, there is a functional organizational structure that is built and if followed (Samaritanhealth.com, 2015).

A functional generally consists of a chief executive officer and a limited number of corporate staff. There are functional line managers in important organizational areas such as production, accounting, marketing, R&D, engineering, and human resources.

The aim of a functional organizational structure is to group the organization's reporting relationships on the basis of specialty or functional areas. The advantage of this form of structure is that a person, who can adequately understand and review the work, and with experience in their same specialty is in-charge of managing the staff. There are opportunities for staffers to move up within their functional areas and thus acts a motivation for the staff to remain with the organization for a long time. Thus the organization gains from the term expertise and company knowledge of the staff over time which is further enhanced by knowledge sharing and lateral job moves to learn new skills.

The primary disadvantage of this structure is that there is often an environment of competition between the different functional areas which can result in a lack of understanding of what other areas do for the company. There is often poor communication between the various divisions or functional areas.

At the Samaritan Medical Center, this structure is followed with a CEO at the top of the management tree. There are various functional departments like doctors, nursing, medicine, finance, administration, etc. In the organization and each of the functions is headed by a functional head who report to the CEO directly. The CEO in turn reports to the Board of directors of the organization (Samaritanhealth.com, 2015). A pictorial representation of the organizational structure looks like below:

Board of Directors

CEO

ADMINISTRATION

MEDICINE

FINANCE

NURSING

DOCTORS

According to this diagram above, the various functions are headed by functional heads or line managers who report directly to the CEO who in turn reports to the board of directors of thee organization.

Strategic Planning and Organization Structure

An environment of ownership among the various stakeholders of the Samaritan Medical Center's is created by the organizational structure as the structure is team-based. The structure of the organization helps in achieving the mission, vision and the aims and objectives of the organization through the effective implementation of its core values of accountability, empathy, honesty and respect. The structure allows accountability of every functional area in the form of a hierarchy. There is a certain degree of freedom within the structure as each of the divisions functions independently and reports to just one person. Therefore it is easier to build coordination between the divisions from the top -- CEO level planning (Kelly, Kelly & Kelly, 2006). This also allows for fostering of mutual respect as the strategic plan relies on collaboration, shared goals, common assessments and other aspects of cooperation to achieve its various plans and missions. It is also a structured system of tasks, workflows, reporting relationships, and open communication channels that link the diverse parts of the organization.

Therefore it can be concluded that the structure of the organization is appropriately designed and strategically planned to help the organization achieve its vision, mission and goals. The structure by which a company is organized, is the keystone that keeps the business functioning. Organizational structure is what tells stakeholders how it is organized and how it works. The structure also tells how leaders are chosen, decisions are made, and how participants are recognized. Health care organizations develop long- and short-term goals which translate into organizational growth. The process of strategic planning is essential when implementing change in an unpredictable health care environment (Gru-nig, Ku-hn & Ku-hn, 2005).

Present strategy of the Organization

The target market for Samaritan Medical Center is the residents of the tri-county region (Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence Counties, and Ft. Drum). Considering that the surrounding area is rural, there is a higher elderly population, and there is a large Amish community, approximately 20% of the population has private health insurance with the remainder being Medicare, Medicaid or private pay.

The beliefs and values of Samaritan Medical Center is one of the reasons this health care organization has been able to serve its community in the way it has. Policies must be adhered to at all times. Violation of policies can cause legal action to…