Environmental Analysis and Healthcare

¶ … environmental analysis helps any organization to recognize factors that impact its performance. The factors impacting an organization's performance may be internal to the organization and they can also be external. Environmental analysis is therefore critical to an overall strategic plan. Several methods of performing environmental analysis can help organizations like the Carolina Health Care System, including the PESTLE and SWOT analyses ("What is Environmental Analysis?" n.d.).

These types of analyses help to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), as well as political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental (PESTLE) factors impacting the organization. Without performing systematic environmental analyses, business and public sector administrators would be working blindly and likely lead their organizations to fail in key preventable ways. On the other hand, a skillful and deft environmental analysis helps managers to develop strategic plans for the future, buffer against possible challenges, mitigate crises, and ensure long-term success.

The Carolinas Health Care System (2016) describes itself as "one of the leading healthcare organizations in the Southeast and the most comprehensive, not-for-profit systems in the country." Furthermore, the Carolinas Health Care System is multifaceted, including academic research and medical centers, hospitals, home health agencies, pharmacies, laboratories, and more. As such, the Carolinas Health Care System operates in several different environments and is therefore susceptible to multiple environmental influences.

The implications of an environmental analysis will help each aspect or sector of the Carolinas Health Care System to operate more smoothly and within the parameters of its stated strategic goals and objectives. An environmental analysis will also help managers make sure that operations are in keeping with mission and value statements that exist at the helm of the organization. Many internal and external issues will impact the evolving strategic action plan rooted in the principles outlined in the environmental analysis.

The following SWOT and PESTLE analyses will help in developing a strategic plan and offer goals for long- and short-term. Strengths: The strengths of the Carolinas Health Care System include its sheer size and scope. As the leading system of its kind in the region, the organization has few competitors and no organization comes close to servicing its target market in the American southeast.

Moreover, the Carolinas Health Care System employs about 60,000 people, showing how the organization plays a key role in the economic viability of the communities in which it operates (Carolinas Health Care System, 2016). The comprehensive nature of the services and facilities that the organization provides means that there are few competitors that can rival the Carolinas Health Care System. The Carolinas Health Care System also has historical roots in the community, stretching back to World War Two (Carolinas Health Care System, 2016).

The Carolinas Health Care System has also won a number of significant awards. Patients can easily access health care services through the Carolinas Health Care System. Because of the wide breadth of services it provides, the diversity of people it serves, and the range of employment opportunities the organization provides, the Carolinas Health Care System boasts a number of strengths. By integrating a multiplicity of services under one rubric, the Carolinas Health Care System ensures an economy of scale for the products and services it provides.

Weaknesses: The Carolinas Health Care System has few overt weaknesses. The main weakness that can be identified would be spreading itself too thin, perhaps leading to performance and management issues. For example, the laboratories may not communicate well enough with the imaging centers and nursing homes, leading to disruptions in services.

Currently, the lack of integrated electronic medical records systems and the lack of integrated information technologies in the informatics sector of the healthcare business might also prove to become a weakness if the senior administrators do not see to it that information systems become standardized in the future. As Henry Schein Medical Systems (2016) points out, health care practitioners in all fields recognize the value of implementing cohesive, integrated electronic systems in order to reduce operational costs, improve results management and patient outcomes, and enhance workflow and productivity.

Both the bottom line and the ethical mission of the Carolinas Health Care System could be compromised if information technology is not used more efficiently. The Carolinas Health Care System (2016) has recently won the Most Wired Award by Hospitals and Health Networks, though, proving that the organization is committed to reducing the potential for this weakness to fester. Opportunities: As Arthur (n.d.) points out, a strategic plan and environmental analysis should ideally focus on growth opportunities.

The Carolinas Health Care System has already expanded to become the comprehensive system that it is, and yet there are still growth opportunities. For example, the Carolinas Health Care System has yet to develop a cohesive strategy for community health, complementary medicine, and outreach services for preventative care. Another opportunity would be for the Carolinas Health Care System to become a leader in publically funded health care programs that can help reduce overall costs and reduce the stranglehold of insurance corporations on health care services.

Threats: An environmental analysis reveals few direct threats in terms of competitor services because few organizations in the American southeast offer as thorough and pervasive a healthcare system. However, some of the threats facing the Carolinas Health Care System include shifts in governmental policies related to healthcare such as Obamacare. Threats can be best assessed using the PESTLE model, which identifies political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental issues.

In the case of Carolinas Health Care System, economic factors include inflation and interest rates that may impact cost of care and insurance. Similarly, increasing income disparity or poverty might impact the ability for Carolinas Health Care system to provide the same quality of care for indigent populations, as it had once been able to prior to economic distress.

The organization's present and prospective customers may also change as demographics shift, although an aging population remains a concern and provides ample opportunities for treating seniors with geriatric or palliative needs The Carolinas Health Care System is fully able to accomplish its mission, which is stated as "to create and operate a comprehensive system to provide healthcare and related services, including education and research opportunities, for the benefit of the people we serve," (Carolinas Health Care System, 2016).

Internal and external challenges can be met through strategic planning, with the following goals and objectives. For a three to five-year period, the Carolinas Health Care System should focus on several strategic plan areas with measurable objectives and outcomes. One of the areas to focus on would be the introduction of portable electronic devices for home health care workers, to provide better integration of services for patients who transition from different points of service or who move frequently.

This goal can be met within three years, as hardware and software designers can develop products that serve the needs of the healthcare workers. Outcomes can be measured in terms of reduction in patient medical errors, and also patient surveys that indicate quality of care improvements from the new technologies. Similarly, the Carlonas Health Care System can survey employees about their interactions with the portable electronic devices. Second, the Carolinas Health Care System should work with policy analysts and lawmakers to bolster Obamacare at the federal level, with state-level counterparts.

Shifting away from a for-profit medical service provider to a single-payer system might help to reduce some of the administrative burdens the organization faces when working closely with.