Master of Science in Nursing, Walden University

Master of Science in Nursing, Walden University

 Master of Science in Nursing, Walden University

NURS 6241-3: Strategic Planning in Healthcare Organizations

Evaluating a strategic plan is an important way to understand how well the organization is set to perform relative to the set goals. Evaluation is a step towards reexamining whether the set strategies will help to achieve both short- and long-term goals. Furthermore, an evaluation plan also describes the “what”, the “how” and the “why” aspects that matter towards achieving the set goals. This task presents a plan to evaluate the strategic plan.

Information used to Evaluate the Strategic Plan

There is a lot to consider when evaluating the strategic plan. For instance, it is important to look at the available resources in the organization as well as the budget allocation against the goals that are to be attained. As indicated in the strategic plan, one of the goals is to ensure reduction of hospital readmission rates by at least 50% (Cakir & Gammon, 2010). To achieve this, one of the highlighted steps was to educate and sensitize healthcare providers, patients and other stakeholders on the importance of adhering to hygiene and other competency-based training opportunities. These initiatives require resources for the healthcare organization to achieve. Other information is the rate of readmissions determined for a specific time period. If the readmission rate increases for the predetermined timeframe, then there is need to re-evaluate the plan.

To ensure that the data being targeted is effectively evaluated to provide better conclusions, the data will be evaluated quarterly. With targets such as the need to reduce the number of hospital readmissions, having quarterly evaluations is an important way to ensure the target evaluation strategies are achieved. However, Burke & Coleman,  (2013) argues that strategic plan should be evaluated as often as possible so that emerging threats can be addressed in time. Nevertheless, a quarterly evaluation is still sufficient in understanding the direction of the strategic plan.

The success of the established goals can be achieved with a proper monitoring mechanism. One way to monitor the goals of the strategic plan is by assessing the feedback given by the patients from time to time during the implementation cycle of the strategic plan. Positive feedback means that patients are responding well to the strategic plan while negative feedback implies that there is still need for improvement. The feedback can as well be given by healthcare providers on what they regard as effective in the strategic plan implementation process and what they think requires improvement. The feedback loops can be implemented for a predetermined time period. The other way to measure the success of a strategic plan is by looking at the rate of infections in the healthcare facility. Since the target is to reduce the number of readmissions, attaining reduced infection rates means that the established goals have been attained. The number of readmissions can be monitored after a specific time so that if there is need for improvement, it is implemented as soon as possible as dictated by the goals set up in the strategic plan.

Stakeholder engagement is key for the success of the strategic plan. To ensure that the stakeholders are informed of what is going as defined in the strategic plan, there will be stakeholder meetings implemented at specific timeframes. During the meetings, the stakeholders will be informed of the direction the organization is taking in implementing the goals defined in its strategic plan. Other than meetings, they will be informed through reports written from time to time. Furthermore, communication will also be through direct emails as well as using both physical and virtual meetings.

The possible deviations or changes in the set goals will be handled through a consultative stakeholder approach where every stakeholder will be allowed to give opinion on the direction to be taken during the goal implementation. Besides, the possible changes will be handled by first assessing both the short- and long-term impacts. If the impact is manageable, then the set changes will be implemented.

Executive Summary

The presented strategic plan is set to address the issues of patient readmissions which is key in improving the quality of care for patients especially in the critical care unit. Cases of patients being readmitted in facilities can be avoided using well developed approaches in the healthcare sector such as improved hygienic practices (Bradley et al., 2013). The strategic plan is set to ensure that to ensure that in the next year, the rate of hospital readmissions, especially in the surgical and emergency care setting, has reduced by at least 50% and that the future healthcare decisions are appropriately aligned with patients’ preferences.

The strategic plan is informed by the fact that implementing a patient readmission reduction program can help to reduce the number of deaths faced in healthcare organizations by a notable margin. According to Spivack (2021), most of the readmission cases in healthcare facilities result from hospital-acquired diseases that can be reduced through basic practices like hand washing protocols and other hygiene practices. Therefore, educating and implementing hygiene management approaches will be an important way to help reduce patient readmission cases. This plan will be key in improving the quality of care delivered to patients. This plan is urgent as it is meant to address notable deaths in the healthcare sector.

NURS 6241-3: Strategic Planning in Healthcare Organizations