PBHL-H401 Strategic Planning In Healthcare Organizations
Strategic Plan for a Healthcare Organization
This strategic plan focuses on Hendricks Regional Health’s Danville Campus, an independent nonprofit hospital in Indiana that serves a fast-growing, affluent county. The team conducted an environmental and competitive analysis, identifying key trends such as the shift to value-based care, workforce shortages, and growing demand for behavioral health services. Key strengths include a commercially dominant payer mix and 18 consecutive patient experience awards, while threats include outpatient migration and aging population impacts on Medicare reliance. The proposed implementation plan addresses these factors through competitive positioning and internal improvements to sustain the hospital’s quality and financial performance.
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
What I learned
From this project, I learned how to conduct a comprehensive strategic analysis of a real healthcare organization, including external environmental trends (economic, technological, political, sociocultural), internal strengths and weaknesses, and competitive positioning. I also gained insight into key industry challenges such as value-based care, workforce shortages, outpatient migration, and the need to balance commercial payor mix with an aging population's Medicare reliance.
This experience helps me prepare for my healthcare career by teaching me to think strategically about how organizations like hospitals adapt to market pressures, regulations, and community needs. Understanding how to assess competitors (e.g., IU Health West, Ascension, Eskenazi) and develop actionable implementation plans (e.g., tuition reimbursement, retention bonuses, telehealth) gives me practical skills in healthcare administration, financial planning, and operational decision-making that employers value.
Program Competencies
-
Demonstrate effective written communication and oral communication skills.
-
Collaborate in teams utilizing interpersonal skills, recognizing and demonstrating sensitivity to different points of view.
-
Describe the structure and functioning of health delivery, public health, and health services organizations and the importance of a population health perspective.
-
Apply quality, strategic planning, management, organizational behavior, marketing, and human resource theories and tools to manage organizational resources, confront industry challenges and improve outcomes in health organizations.
-
Apply data and health information technology to inform organizational performance and decision making.
-
Utilize financial tools, principles, concepts, and practices to analyze budgets and financial documents to determine the financial performance of health services organizations.