STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Also, the hospital’s mission involves “delivering compassionate, high-quality, affordable health services; serving and advocating for our sisters and brothers who are poor and disenfranchised; and partnering with others in the community to improve their quality of life” (Dignity Health,2014). Also, the organization’s vision is to have “a vibrant, national health care system known for service, chosen for clinical excellence, standing in partnership with patients, employees, and physicians to improve the health of all communities served” (Dignity Health, 2014). The organization also follows a set of values that are aligned with the organization's objective of providing quality health services to the community. These values include justice, excellence, dignity, collaboration and stewardship (Dignity Health,2014). Some of the external challenges affecting the hospital include a service area that has a large proportion of elderly, illiterate and poor persons- this factor compromises the effectiveness of the organization in achieving its goal of improving the health standards of the people in its service area.

The hospital also relies heavily on revenue generation in the context of outpatient services and desperately needs to expand its scope of services. The Role of Directional Strategy in The Organization The role of directional strategies in solving these challenges stems from the fact that directional strategies are essential in guiding operational decisions and activities and are thus the engine of organizational change- by controlling the functioning of organizations, directional strategies play a central role in the implementation of policies that are meant to help the given organization tackle its external and internal challenges. The Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital’s mission, for instance, guides its stakeholders, including employees, in their daily activities and decision-making. The mission statement is in this regard, interchangeable with the company’s statement of purpose.

The mission statement is thus the tool through which the hospital can generate long and short-term objectives. These areas include offering compassionate medical care, quality medical care, and convenient medical care in the context of customer perspective. Regarding strategies meant to improve the financial health of the organization, the primary strategies include managing costs and growing revenue (Singh & Wheeler, 2012). Another key area targeted for strategic change includes internal perspective where the recommended changes include Improved access for patients and referring MDs, and increase access to a more expansive geographic region, research and teaching excellence to attract research funding, and offering quality patient care to achieve the best health outcomes. Therefore, the recommended changes in the context of the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital include developing and implementing an expansion strategy that would see the hospital expand its bed-capacity, its number of employees and physical infrastructure.

Considering that the hospital serves a service area of about 80,000 individuals, this would be a prudent move considering that the rural community served by the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital compared to its 800-strong staff suggests that the hospital strains to accommodate the number of clients seeking care at the institution. At the moment, the hospital’s existing leadership approach is a liability to the hospital because employees feel demoralized and excluded from the decision-making process that guides the functioning of the hospital yet their experiences and perspectives are indispensable to the improvement of working conditions and patient health outcomes in the hospital. The implementation of a transformational leadership model includes training managers in the hospital in this leadership strategy and making it the official leadership culture in the hospital (West et al.

Therefore, nurse managers and other team leaders in the hospital will be required to take the right risks and apply the intelligence gathered by team members to make informed decisions. Leaders in the hospital will also be expected to understand and share the collective consciousness of the entire organization. As a result of inspiring employees through leadership, and increasing their morale by entertaining their ideas and listening and acting upon their complaints and recommendations, the hospital is likely to have highly motivated staff who will be capable of helping it meet its objectives (West et al. Emphasizing the staffing of the hospital based on a day-to-day and not a month-to-month or pay-period to pay-period basis is likely to help the organization save on costs and thus have more financial resources to finance expansion and other activities.

For instance, managers can apply flexible staffing to permit nurses to check in later –if the circumstances are that the nurses continuously arrive before surgery start-times- so that if surgeries run over, the hospital does not incur overtime expenses (Needleman et al,2006). Also, the management should evaluate every program on an individual basis to determine those that are viable profit-wise and those that are not. This will help the hospital focus on programs that are profitable and cut off programs that are not economically efficient and thus generate more revenue (Share et al. Also, the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital can cut down on expenses on supplies by managing vendors more efficiently. Also, managing illnesses based on established protocols is crucial in cutting down on costs especially in avoiding unnecessary treatments and tests.

The hospital’s leadership should ensure that its staff is aware of its role in the institution’s profitability. Nurses and physicians are more likely to make decisions that are geared toward maintaining hospital profitability if they are engaged by the hospital’s leadership regarding the financial goals of the hospital. Other strategies that are crucial in helping the hospital achieve its financial goals include an initiative to outsource the delivery of a variety of a variety of services, working with doctors in the locality to dissuade them from competing for outpatient cases and increasing case volume by recruiting new doctors to the facility (Share et al. Nonetheless, the hospital should also have an aggressive human resource policy that not only includes attracting competitive personnel but also retaining the most talented individuals (Noe et al.

Through increased participation in research, the hospital will be able to attract funding geared toward supporting its capacity to conduct research, and this funding will be fundamental in helping the hospital finance its operations. Also, by partnering with medical training institutions, the hospital will be in a better position to attract physicians seeking residency and thus contribute to improving its staff-to-patient ratio. Moreover, the hospital can increase its efficiency by increasing access for patients and referring MDS. This can be done through partnering with independent transportation networks (Chan, Hart & Goodman,2006). For instance, in the rural community served by the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, the hospital needs to consider that many seniors can no longer drive to the hospital, or walk long distances to hospitals.