Carolinas Healthcare System: Strategy and Structure
This paper examines the organizational and strategic framework of Carolinas Healthcare System (CHS), one of the largest non-profit healthcare networks in the southeastern United States. It covers the organization's governing structure, mission, vision, and core values, and evaluates how its balanced scorecard strategic planning model aligns with those values. The paper profiles key executive leaders and their roles, describes CHS's divisional organizational structure across more than 900 locations, and analyzes Kotter's Eight-Step Change Model as the organization's change management approach. It concludes with an assessment of board governance, strategic goal formation, and the organization's primary service delivery and value chain activities.
- Overview of Carolinas Healthcare System: Introduction to CHS as a major non-profit system
- Mission, Vision, and Core Values: CHS mission, vision, and four core values
- Strategic Planning Model and Framework: Balanced scorecard model and physician welfare strategy
- Organizational Structure and Key Leaders: Divisional structure and seventeen executive leader profiles
- Change Management Model: Kotter's Eight-Step Change Model explained
- Board Governance and Strategic Goal Formation: Board oversight, policy-making, and goal-setting roles
- Service Delivery and Value Chain Activities: Hospitals, clinical trials, and marketing channels
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What makes this paper effective
- It grounds abstract management frameworks — balanced scorecard, Kotter's change model — in the specific operational context of a real healthcare organization, making theory concrete and applicable.
- The leadership roster section provides granular role descriptions that illustrate how a large, divisional healthcare system distributes executive responsibility across functional areas.
- The paper maintains a clear thread between organizational values and strategic choices, explicitly connecting physician well-being initiatives to the organization's stated employee-centered values.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied framework analysis: it selects established management models (BSC, Kotter's Eight Steps) and evaluates how a named organization implements them, citing both primary organizational sources and peer-reviewed literature to validate claims. This blend of institutional documentation and academic citation is characteristic of strong healthcare management writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with an organizational overview, then moves logically through governance, mission/values, strategic planning, structure, leadership, change management, and governance impact — mirroring the standard sequence of a healthcare management case analysis. Each section builds context for the next, culminating in service delivery and value chain discussion that ties operational scope back to the strategic goals introduced earlier.
Overview of Carolinas Healthcare System
The healthcare organization this paper focuses on is Carolinas Healthcare System (CHS). It is one of the top healthcare organizations in the Southeast region and one of the most wide-ranging non-profit healthcare organizations in the United States.
Mission, Vision, and Core Values
The governing structure of Carolinas Healthcare System is led by the Board of Commissioners — a group of individuals who have demonstrated awareness and interest in the health and well-being of the public. In addition, the organization has a Board of Advisors whose members are selected by the Chairman of the Board (Carolinas Healthcare System, 2016).
Carolinas Healthcare System's mission is the formation of an all-encompassing system to provide comprehensive healthcare-associated services, in addition to educational and research opportunities, for the benefit of its consumers. The organization's vision is to be nationally acknowledged as a leader in transforming the delivery of healthcare and the quality and value of services it provides. Its core values recognize employees as a valuable asset; the four guiding values are caring, commitment, integrity, and teamwork. The organization maintains a Code of Business Conduct that delineates the personal and professional behaviors expected of both suppliers and workers, and it also serves as a quick reference for several of its compliance policies (Carolinas Healthcare System, 2016).
Strategic Planning Model and Framework
The strategic framework adopted by Carolinas Healthcare System centers on ensuring the welfare of its physicians. This priority has emerged largely because recent periods have seen multiple instances of physician fatigue and stress within the organization.
CHS uses the balanced scorecard (BSC) as its strategic planning model. The BSC consists of significant indicators tied to the operational and strategic objectives set by the organization each year. It aids in assessing and monitoring the progress made toward attaining those objectives. Importantly, it distributes objectives across four balanced perspectives: customer, employee and learning, internal business processes, and financial (Kaplan and Norton, 2007).
There is a clear relationship between the strategic plan and the mission, vision, and values of the organization. By prioritizing the well-being of physicians, the strategic plan aligns directly with the organizational values that recognize employees as a critical asset.
References
Arnwine, D. L. (2002). Effective governance: the roles and responsibilities of board members. Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center), 15(1), 19.
Bonn, I., & Fisher, J. (2005). Corporate governance and business ethics: Insights from the strategic planning experience. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 13(6), 730–738.
Carolinas Healthcare System. (2016). About Carolinas Healthcare System. Retrieved 4 August 2016 from: http://www.carolinashealthcare.org/about-us
Carolinas Healthcare System. (2016). Carolinas Healthcare System governing boards. Retrieved 4 August 2016 from: http://www.carolinashealthcare.org/about-us/governing-boards
Carolinas Healthcare System. (2016). Carolinas Healthcare System newsroom. Retrieved 4 August 2016 from: http://www.carolinashealthcare.org/about-us/newsroom
Carolinas Healthcare System. (2016). Carolinas Healthcare System leadership. Retrieved 4 August 2016 from: http://www.carolinashealthcare.org/about-us/leadership
Garloch, K. (2016). New Carolinas Healthcare System CEO brings national reputation, promise to 'Keep Pounding'. Charlotte Observer. Retrieved 4 August 2016 from:
Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2007). Using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system. Harvard Business Review, 85(7/8), 150.
Mind Tools. (2016). Kotter's 8-Step Change Model: Implementing change powerfully and successfully. Retrieved 4 August 2016 from: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_82.htm
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