SWOT Analysis: Mercy Medical Center Strengths Mercy

SWOT Analysis: Mercy Medical Center

Strengths

Mercy Medical Center is known for its strong workforce, composed of highly competent nursing and medical staff. Aside from their qualifications, Mercy's competent salary rates enabled the hospital to have a low staffing turnover unlike other hospitals in Baltimore, Maryland.

As support to the hospital's strong workforce, the hospital also has a strong training program for advanced studies for nurses. Mercy RN is a program in Mercy that allows its nurses (and even those outside of Mercy) to pursue advanced studies on nursing research and evidence-based practice of nursing.

Mercy Medical Center's organizational capacity is considered strong and mature with its continuous development across Baltimore, establishing new health centers and services, including an academic institution and a community foundation, and receiving numerous awards for its healthcare, medical, and charitable work not only across Baltimore, but also across the state.

Mercy Medical Center continues to be a "Center of Excellence" for the following medical specializations, similarly offering a vast array of medical and healthcare services for its immediate (primary) and secondary communities: breast cancer, digestive health, lung diseases, endocrinology, cancer, eye and cosmetic surgery, gynecology, heart, internal pain, orthopedics, neurosurgery, oncology, urology, vascular diseases, and women's health.

Mercy continues to practice nursing based on evidence-based research studies developed within the Mercy community and from outside of the institution.

Mercy Medical Center is considered a "reputable" hospital in Maryland, where quality patient care is provided and competent staff (nurses) and medical doctors are housed / employed.

It is one of the three (3) best and only full service hospitals in Baltimore and all of Maryland.

Weaknesses

Being a full service hospital and known also as a Center of Excellence and academic institution in Baltimore, Mercy Medical Center is also reputed to have one of the "highest fees" or hospital charges in the state. This prevents people from availing of the hospital's quality services.

Because it is known to charge "high fees," Mercy Medical Center has been considered a 'hospital for the rich' only. Hence, clients and patients from middle- to lower-income groups are deterred from coming and availing of the services available to them.

While the hospital has already implemented a program integrating health information management systems in its operations and hospital structure, leadership remains weak in this aspect. Most of the staff and doctors still resort to the manual mode of data/patient record entry, prescribing, and review of patient histories. Health MIS efforts are, at best, extant because of compliance purposes but has failed to benefit the hospital in terms of efficiency and quality care.

Poor linkage between practice and evidence-based nursing research -- Mercy Medical Center's activities and practices are poorly or weakly integrated with Mercy RN, the academic and research of the hospital. At present, they operate as separate entities. While they have the same vision, mission, and values, the Medical Center and Mercy RN operate independently and both groups are not aware of each other's activities and endeavors -- thus resulting to a poor alignment of Mercy's goals as a medical service institution and knowledge-based for medical practice and research.

Opportunities

Community partnerships of Mercy Medical Center offers more potential for expansion of its services and even infrastructure, with special focus on Oncology, specifically for children. This will strengthen the hospital's Foundation through more funding generated and used for the study and practice of Oncology within the hospital system.

Mercy RN remains a strong opportunity for the Medical Center, as the management sees a potential strong partnership and linkage with the academic staff of Mercy RN and the staff and management of the Medical Center. Potentially, there could be a leadership program that could facilitate "exchanges" between nurses in research and nurses in practice to have more appreciation and integration of Mercy's work in the medical sector, both from the 'ground' (hospital setting) and research/academic perspectives.

Legislation and initial implementation of health IMS could be used to the hospital's advantage if properly integrated with its structure and operations. An electronic-based patient history reviewing, records data entry, and prescribing systems could benefit Mercy staff given the proper training and exposure to the technologies the hospital managed to avail and initially implement within its system.

Threats

Mercy has two (2) major competitors in the Baltimore area, and one has recently finished expanding its infrastructure and hospital services. Further, this competitor hospital is aiming to compete with Mercy through the establishment of a Knowledge Center likened to Mercy RN, integrating its hospital services with the evidence-based research its team of academics and researchers will be able to develop.

Competitors' fees are considered lower than Mercy. However, it must be noted that Competitor A (who has expansion plans on the way) is expected to increase its hospital service fees as well as a result of the expansion of its infrastructure and services. Competitor B's hospital fees remains the same, however, it is earning the reputation of becoming a full service hospital with the reputation of being 'not too credible' and 'old.'