Strategic planning and organizational development

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Introduction, Mission, Vision

The organization that I work for is the Grady Health System in Atlanta, Georgia. The Grady systems comprises 8 health care facilities in the Atlanta area. The Grady Health System has been part of the Atlanta community since 1892, with 110 beds and one operating room at Grady Hospital in a three-story facility. The organization was founded by Henry Grady, the editor of the Atlanta Constitution, as a means of providing health care for the area's poor (GradyHealth.org, 2014).

Grady's vision is to become the "leading public academic healthcare system in the United States." The organization's mission as follows:

"Grady improves the health of the community by providing quality, comprehensive healthcare in a compassionate, culturally competent, ethical and fiscally responsible manner. Grady maintains its commitment to the underserved of Fulton and DeKalb counties, while also providing care for residents of metro Atlanta and Georgia. Grady leads through its clinical excellence, innovative research and progressive medical education and training."

Grady's values are stated as excellence, customer service, ethics, teamwork and commitment. These values, mission and vision reflect the origins as a provider of healthcare for the poor, and the focus on excellence that has come to characterize Grady in the past several decades.

Strategic Planning Model

A strategic planning model is the means by which an organization develops its strategic plan. There are many different approaches to strategic planning. One model is to build from the vision or strategic goals; another is to plan around key issues. There is also the alignment model, seeking to align resources with the mission and vision; there is the scenario planning model and then there is also the organic planning model that reflects ongoing strategic planning (McNamara, 2014).

The Grady Health System builds its strategic plan around its vision, but aligning its resources and strategies around that vision. They begin with a clear sense of long-range objective in their vision statement and then work from there. Their mandate has been adjusted since Grady was founded, but there is the same sense of community values that surrounds the organization. Grady has, additionally, built competencies in specific areas, including trauma and emergency, heart, stroke, and other care options. Grady therefore has adopted a strategy that takes a handful of focus areas, makes them specialties, and then competes as a differentiated player on that basis. By focusing on specific competencies, Grady is better able to execute its strategy and work towards its vision of being a leading provider of healthcare in the United States.

The strategic planning model is then adapted to the individual facility. There are eight facilities within Grady, and each is designed to make a contribution to the overall success of the organization. Thus, strategy is something that is integrated from the top of the organization, while retaining independence among the individual facilities within the Grady family. As such, the vision is an integral part of the strategic plan, as are the values.

The mission statement is, more or less, the ultimate basis of the strategic plan. It defines where the organization operates, what it intends to achieve and how it intends to do this. Key words like compassion, ethics, and fiscal responsibility are all embedded in the strategy and come straight from the mission statement.

Structure

There are many different types of organizational structure. Organizations can be divided by geography, by division or by function. These different structures each have their pros and cons, and therefore the choice of structure will affect the ability of the organization to meet its objectives (Writing, 2014). Grady is based on a divisional structure. It is not geographical since its activities are solely in Fulton and DeKalb counties. It is not by function, which would imply that all heart activities, for example, be one unit within the company and all emergency activities as well. The divisional structure is based on the eight facilities that the company operates. This structure allows for a degree of autonomy for each facility, all while seeking to build a common mission and vision that is guided by the senior management at Grady. Thus, head office is one layer of the organization, underneath of which are the eight facilities. Within each facility, there are multiple units for the different functional specialties.

Leadership

Grady is run by the Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation, which is a nonprofit corporation in charge of administering the hospitals. There are seventeen Board members that lead Grady. The CEO is John Haupert, and he is a career administrator who came to Grady from a similar position in Dallas. The COO is Christopher Mosley, who has worked in executive positions at several hospitals in the United States. CFO Mark Meyer also came over to Grady from Dallas.

The Chief of Staff is Curtis Lewis, an interventional radiologist. In his role, he oversees 2000 physicians and physicians-in-training, and he has an MBA along with his medical background in order to handle this leadership role. The Chief Nursing Office is Rhonda Scott, who has worked all over the U.S., but now has ten years with Grady. Other high-levels executives oversee the Grady Health Foundation, the marketing function, legal, information, clinical operations and government regulations. The members of the Board have a wide range of experiences ranging from former CEO of Grady to the CEO of Waffle House and key stakeholders in both healthcare and in the Atlanta community. The Board forms the key leadership of the organization, and it does appear to play a role in creating the direction for Grady.

Change Management

It is unclear what change management model is used by Grady. There are a number of change management models in the literature ranging from the Kotter 8-step change management model, the Lewin change management model and ADKAR. The basic structure of most change management models is to identify the issue, create the need for change, make the change and then move the company forward at that point (Normandin, 2012). It is not known the specific approach model used, but change at Grady occurs slowly. For the most part, people work at their daily jobs, and change occurs incrementally. Changes are rolled out slowly at Grady, such that people can continue saving patients without disruption. But change is always happening, so there is something of a continuous change model that must be in place for this.

Service Delivery

Service delivery for Grady is in Fulton and DeKalb counties, Georgia. The target market is based on medical need, as Grady has specific areas of focus. These include emergency/trauma, heart, stroke, cancer, OB/GYN, diabetes and senior health. Not all facilities treat all of these things, but these are the major areas of focus for Grady. The target market is also geographic, but there are no limits on ages for example, as Grady ranges from maternal health to senior health. The demographic target market is aligned with the demographics of Atlanta, and in keeping with the original mandate of Grady, there are accommodation made for the poor.