SWOT analysis of Coffee Regional Medical Center in Georgia

Coffee Regional Medical Center, Inc. CRMC") is a non-profit, 88-bed hospital located in Douglas, Georgia. Since 1953, CRMC has served the healthcare needs of the community as the sole hospital-provider in Douglas, Georgia and surrounding Coffee County. CRMC's mission is to provide the highest-quality healthcare, in a safe and caring environment, for both patients and families (Coffee Regional Medical Center, N.d.).

CRMC is an acute care hospital for adults and children in southern Georgia whose primary and secondary markets extend from Coffee to Jeff Davis and Bacon counties to Ben Hill and Atkinson counties.

Technological

Healthcare is miles behind the curve when it comes to technological innovation, an industry that historically has not been easy to innovate for. There are two key trends that have changed the game just in the last few months, explains Zoe Barry, CEO and Founder of ZappRx, "opening up what could be a landgrab for ambitious startups who want to disrupt the healthcare space"; among these was a new piece of legislation called the HITECH Act, which among other things like encouraging electronic medical record adoption, forced some of the major players such as Amazon's Web Services (AWS) to make technology that other tech entrepreneurs depend on heavily, finally available to those working in healthcare (Pozin, 2013). "You also have the rise of Accountable Care Organizations," said Barry, "where a doctor's compensation model is shifting away from fee-for-service to pay-for-performance" and this will ultimately lead to doctors collecting more data about their patients and spawn innovation (Pozin, 2013). Therefore, it is reasonable to suspect that the technological aspect to healthcare will undergo major transitions in the short-term.

Political

The ACA (Affordable Care Act) is undoubtedly the major medical reform that will affect all aspects of Strategic Management at Coffee Regional Medical Center (CRMC). This also represents an excellent opportunity for the organization. As more individuals have access to the healthcare system, the CRMC will be able to capture a larger portion of the expanding market size.

Competitive

Coffee Regional Medical Center is the sole provider within their Primary Service area and therefore only has to consider a limited amount of competitive factors. However, if the organization does not uphold high quality standards then they could see some of their clientele traveling for services. Therefore, even without direct competition, the organization must still strive for competitive excellence.

Regulatory

Medicare/Medicaid, Federal Government, and private insurance companies will represent the biggest regulatory challenges to the organization. It is expected that these factors will undergo major transitions consistent with the changes amongst the other factors.

Economic

The economic considerations are rather grim for this region. The Coffee County unemployment rate is (2012) 10.4% which is much higher that the State of GA's unemployment rate which stands at 7.2% as well as the national unemployment rate: 6.7%. Furthermore, 19.1% of population in Coffee County, GA is below the poverty line and has a median income of only $35,936 per year. These figures amount to the fact that many potential clients in the regional market will unlikely be able to pay for medical services. It is likely that the federal and state changes will help many people in the local market, but not all. Therefore it is still expected that the healthcare system will have absorb some of the community's inability to pay for services.

Strengths

Sole local provider

Solid Reputation

Weaknesses

Limited service offerings

Efficiency Challenges

Opportunities

Leverage growing market size

Adopt innovations in technology for operational excellence

Threats

Economic challenges in the local market

Turbulent industry changes ahead