MHA-FPX5010 MichelleSmith Assessment 3: Directional Strategies Report

Directional Strategies Report

St Vincent’s Medical Center is a catholic-based healthcare facility founded in 1905 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The hospital is under Hartford Healthcare management and wishes to improve its strategic management. The facility has guiding vision, mission, and values statements. The hospital has been affected by health and local, state, and federal laws and policies.

Assessment_3_Instructions__Directional_Strategies_Report

MHA-FPX5010 MichelleSmith Assessment 3: Directional Strategies Report

The facility has constantly been changing to meet these changes and updating its mission, vision, and mission statements. This directional strategy report looks at St. Vincent’s Medical Center’s impacts on the community around them, how well the mission and vision represent the company, and how they align with the strategic goals.

Effectiveness of the Organizational Directional Strategies

The mission statement explains the reason for the existence of the hospital. The facility’s mission is “Making God’s healing presence known worldwide by improving patients’ health, especially the vulnerable, and advancing social justice.” The mission statement is an overview introduction and explanation of the institution’s existence (Haski-Leventhal, 2020).

The organization is founded on the Christian faith and lets the community know so through its mission and services. The catholic church founded the hospital, hence the inclination to issues of religion. However, the mission is straightforward and does not confine the facility to serving Christians only. It includes humanity in its mission, meaning it serves all humans, regardless of religion, race, or any other affiliation. The mission thus guides the facility to serve the diverse community by ensuring all individuals in the community get the services.

The values statement outlines what’s important to the company, its priorities, and how it conducts its activities (Yokomizo, 2020). The institution’s values are “Centerpiece for managing and monitoring performance, Compassion, Inclusion, Integrity, Collaboration, Excellence.” The facility’s staff understands these values clearly. The institution has values reflected in the institution’s partnerships. The organization has a strategic plan to improve care delivery and foster relationships with the community and other stakeholders. The institution also has strong partnerships with facilities, reflecting collaboration, such as the New York College, which helps it achieve its goals and objectives.

The vision statement of the facility is “A healthier future for all, inspired by faith, powered by humanity, and driven by innovation.” The vision statement guides strategic planning by discussing the overall goals of what all care providers should work towards (Yokomizo, 2020). The vision statement leads the facility to develop interventions such as community outreach, homecare programs, and accessible healthcare for particularly vulnerable groups. The facility also incorporates technology in its activities, as seen in the advanced technology and the strategic goal to improve it further. However, the vision is ambiguous and needs improvement. It is challenging to measure its achievement.

Gaps Between Effective Directional Strategies and Existing Organizational Strategies

Any organization must have a vision, mission, and values statements that guide actions and explain the organization’s existence. According to Hypes et al. (2020), a mission statement should be brief and memorable to enhance its retention among staff. It outlines the “who, what, and why” of the institution and guides the organization’s operation.

The mission statement, “Making God’s healing presence known worldwide by improving patients’ health, especially the vulnerable, and advancing social justice,” has all these characteristics. On the other hand, the values statement does not support this mission, and Hypes et al. (2020) note that the mission, vision, and values statement should be interdependent and complement each other. Revision of both the mission and vision statements is thus vital.

The vision statement outlines the organization’s desired future: what it hopes to achieve. Haski-Leventhal (2020) states that a vision should be made of facts, not opinions, and it should be motivating, ambitious, and fitted with accurate and reliable indicators. Fuertes et al. (2021) note that the vision statement motivates employees because it gives them a reason and direction to work. St Vincent’s vision statement is not an action plan, is not motivating, and is ambiguous. It outlines that the institution aims to achieve a healthier future but does not outline its plans.

St. Vincent Medical Center has excellently developed functional directional strategies that guide activities in the healthcare facility. Overall, the mission statement reflects the organizational identity and is suitable for the organization but could use some adjustment. The value statement is also vital in promoting the organizational strategic plan. The values such as innovation are reflected in the leadership’s persistent desire to improve the organization and promote better patient outcomes. The organization is also committed to enhancing care providers’ satisfaction.

Alignment Between Organizational Directional Strategies and its Strategic Plan

Fuertes et al. (2021) note that strategic plans are discrete, directional, and differentiated and should support an institution’s mission, vision, and values. Any discrepancy causes stagnation and organizational failure. The organization has four strategic goals: changing organizational technology, improving patient satisfaction scores, changing organizational leadership, and improving community engagement.

The organizational values wholly support these goals. Engaging the community will be supported by the collaboration and integration of the values statement. The organizational values of innovation will support the technology implementation. However, the value of managing and monitoring performance needs to be better represented in the vision and strategic plan and may need to be adequately supported in the strategic plan.

The vision needs to be more objective and reliable and entails a statement not backed by the specific actions of achieving the fact. For example, the organization aims to ensure the strategic plan is well supported by the mission as they focus on improving patient outcomes, satisfaction, and quality of services delivered.

The second organizational strategy, “to improve patient satisfaction scores and build on the existing organization’s reputation through improved service delivery and care quality evaluation,” is the most relevant and achievable strategy based on the existing organizational directional strategy. An update on the vision statement will help achieve the rest of the organizational strategies by focusing efforts to favor the strategic plan.

Proposed changes to the organizational structure and strategic goals

The vision statement should be measurable, articulable, and achievable based on the organization’s strategic plans. It is often a verb followed by a future position statement. Thus, the statement should be objective and measurable, hence the need for time inclusion in the vision statement (Fuertes et al., 2020). The vision has guided the facility in integrating all services, but there is a need for improvement to create a unidirectional. The organization should be able to measure its performance over time to affiliate time to the values statement.

Turnbull et al. (2020) note that timing and objectivity are integrity to strategic planning and organizational success. The vision is not measurable and is mainly ambiguous, hence the need for improvement. The mission statement should also be adjusted to feature the local community because none of its activities or strategic plan has global inclusion.

The step will also ensure a change in the direction of efforts. Moreso, the institution should change its population focus from community to county or state. Any healthcare facility serves the local community but also serves patients from other facilities. Efforts in community engagement, such as medical camps and marketing, should also target the county and the state.

Conclusion

St. Vincent Medical Center has developed directional strategies and supporting strategic plans to guide healthcare activities. The changes discussed above on the mission and vision statements will help them with the strategic plan, enhance organizational success, and match the organizational environment. The vision, mission, and values are interconnected, and leaders can leverage their power to influence all organizational activities to ensure relevance and leverage favorable environmental factors.

MHA-FPX5010 MichelleSmith Assessment 3: Directional Strategies Report References

MHA-FPX5010 Assessment 3 Instructions: Directional Strategies Report

Overview

Write a 4–6-page directional strategies report that examines the alignment of a health care organization’s current directional strategies with its strategic goals. Include improvement recommendations that address gaps between where the organization currently is and where it wants to go.

Note: Each assessment in this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.

In your previous assessments, you examined how today’s health care organizations prepare themselves for the present and the future through strategic management. Specifically, you analyzed how a health care organization’s external and internal environments affect its operations. You also performed a TOWS analysis to help a health care organization identify strategic objectives to drive and improve all aspects of the company.

Also Read: MHA-FPX5010 MichelleSmith Assessment 4: Strategic Plan Objectives and Balanced Scorecard