SWOT Analysis: Mercy Medical Center Strengths

Mercy Medical Center is known for its strong workforce, composed of highly competent nursing and medical staff. Aside from their qualifications, Mercy's competent salary rates enabled the hospital to have a low staffing turnover unlike other hospitals in Baltimore, Maryland.

As support to the hospital's strong workforce, the hospital also has a strong training program for advanced studies for nurses. Mercy RN is a program in Mercy that allows its nurses (and even those outside of Mercy) to pursue advanced studies on nursing research and evidence-based practice of nursing.

Mercy Medical Center's organizational capacity is considered strong and mature with its continuous development across Baltimore, establishing new health centers and services, including an academic institution and a community foundation, and receiving numerous awards for its healthcare, medical, and charitable work not only across Baltimore, but also across the state.

Mercy Medical Center continues to be a "Center of Excellence" for the following medical specializations, similarly offering a vast array of medical and healthcare services for its immediate (primary) and secondary communities: breast cancer, digestive health, lung diseases, endocrinology, cancer, eye and cosmetic surgery, gynecology, heart, internal pain, orthopedics, neurosurgery, oncology, urology, vascular diseases, and women's health.

Mercy continues to practice nursing based on evidence-based research studies developed within the Mercy community and from outside of the institution.

Mercy Medical Center is considered a "reputable" hospital in Maryland, where quality patient care is provided and competent staff (nurses) and medical doctors are housed / employed.

This prevents people from availing of the hospital's quality services.
Because it is known to charge "high fees," Mercy Medical Center has been considered a 'hospital for the rich' only. Hence, clients and patients from middle- to lower-income groups are deterred from coming and availing of the services available to them.

While the hospital has already implemented a program integrating health information management systems in its operations and hospital structure, leadership remains weak in this aspect. Most of the staff and doctors still resort to the manual mode of data/patient record entry, prescribing, and review of patient histories. Health MIS efforts are, at best, extant because of compliance purposes but has failed to benefit the hospital in terms of efficiency and quality care.

Poor linkage between practice and evidence-based nursing research -- Mercy Medical Center's activities and practices are poorly or weakly integrated with Mercy RN, the academic and research of the hospital. At present, they operate as separate entities. While they have the same vision, mission, and values, the Medical Center and Mercy RN operate independently and both groups are not aware of each other's activities and endeavors -- thus resulting to a poor alignment of Mercy's goals as a medical service institution and knowledge-based for medical practice and research.

Opportunities

Community partnerships of…