Prepare a 2-3 page environmental analysis briefing report that examines environmental issues that affect the health care organization you have selected, including the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats you have identified for the organization.

Introduction

Note: Each assessment in this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in the order they are presented.

An organization needs to understand the environments in which it operates. The external environment includes competitors, partners in collaboration, governmental and social factors, as well as economic factors. The internal environment includes all the systems and processes involved in the organization's operations.

Analyzing the external and internal environments tells an organization where it stands and provides a framework for making strategic decisions. In this assessment, you will examine environmental issues that affect the organization you selected.

Reminder: Complete the assessments in this course in the order they are presented. You will complete sections of a strategic management plan for each assessment. In this assessment, you will continue to use the same organization and the factor from the AHA’s most recent Environmental Scan report that you chose in the first assessment.

Professional Context

Once health care leaders understand the importance of strategic planning and the organization's key core concepts and components, they must determine if the goals of the organization align with its mission, vision, and values and if the current strategic plan has been met.

Next, health care organization leaders need to understand the internal and external environment in which they operate and anticipate and respond to the significant shifts taking place within that environment. Most often this is established by analyzing the external and internal environments that affect an organization's operations.

In an internal environmental analysis, leaders carefully examine each function or organizational subsystem and then develop and analyze a list of strengths and weaknesses for each. This approach has been successful in some cases; however, an internal environmental analysis alone does not adequately address strategic issues. Health care leaders must assess both the internal and external factors that affect the organization's outcomes, and this can be achieved by conducting both an internal and an external analysis.

In an external environmental analysis, leaders carefully conduct an environmental scan of the external factors that impact its operations. An environmental analysis enables the organization to identify current challenges and opportunities in preparation for future strategic planning and goal identification. Insightful diagnosis of a company's external and internal environments is a prerequisite for leaders to succeed in crafting a strategy that is an excellent fit within the company’s operations. These evaluations assist the organization in exploring alternative strategies and business models that culminate in leaders choosing a specific strategy.

Health care leaders often use tools such as the TOWS, SWOT, PESTEL, et cetera, to evaluate where the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats exist. In addition, an essential element in evaluating a health care organization's overall strategy entails examining the company's resources and competitive capabilities. The weaknesses and threats often indicate issues that should be addressed. This will help the organization clarify its strategic objectives to drive and improve all aspects of operations. A well-executed environmental analysis provides the basis for crafting the organization's strategic plan.

Assessment Instructions

For this assessment, use the Environmental Analysis Briefing Report Assessment Template [DOCX] Download Environmental Analysis Briefing Report Assessment Template [DOCX]to prepare a 2–3 page briefing report. Imagine creating this report for your CEO to review. Keep your report precise, clear, and professional. For this report:

1. Provide a brief introduction to this report and its purpose.
2. Use the factor from the AHA's most recent Environmental Scan report you chose for the first assessment and evaluate 2–3 environmental issues you feel best relate to this factor and your organization.
3. Using a tool of your choice or a tool your current workplace uses (e.g., TOWS, SWOT, PESTEL, et cetera), evaluate where the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats exist related to this factor.
4. Explain the tool you chose for the internal and external analysis and why you chose it.
   • For example, if you chose workforce as your factor, what tool would you use to determine the issues?
5. Explain the environmental issues you identified using the tool you chose and that are related to the AHA factor you chose. Explain how these issues impact the growth of the organization and why.
6. Explain your plan to address the issues identified in your analysis.
7. Use evidence to support your assertions about how you would address the issues.
   • For example, for workforce, you might consider SHRM as one of your resources.
   • Depending on the factor chosen, consider additional data and resources from reputable sources and associations such as the American Hospital Association (AHA), American College of Health care Executives (ACHE), National Center for Health care Leadership (NHCL), National Institutes of Health (NIH), et cetera.
8. Attach the tool you used as an appendix after the reference page of your report.

Additional Requirements

• Document Format: Use the Environmental Analysis Briefing Report Assessment Template [DOCX] Download Environmental Analysis Briefing Report Assessment Template [DOCX]provided to create a professional executive summary.
• Document Length: 2–3 double spaced pages, not including the title, reference, or appendix pages.
• Supporting Evidence: Include at least 3–5 academic or scholarly sources that match their in-text citations.
  • Readers of your summary will want to know the sources of your information, including any authoritative sources that support your analysis. Be sure to include all applicable sources.
  • Supporting evidence may include current accrediting body standards, industry standards, and government agency reports, including such sources as the AHA, National Academy of Medicine, Harvard Business Review (HBR), et cetera.
  • One source should be the AHA's most recent Environmental Scan report.
• APA Formatting: Format in-text citations and references according to current APA style and formatting. Evidence and APA can help with this.
• Submission Requirements: Submit your briefing report and appendix in the Assessment area.

Complete a systematic evaluation of a unit, facility, or organization with which you are familiar, in an attempt to identify the need to address the economic health care issue.

Introduction

Note: Each assessment in this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.

As a master's-level health care practitioner, you may sometimes be tasked with the need to complete a systematic evaluation as a way of improving your organization’s outcomes. In this assessment, you will have a chance to practice these skills by completing a systematic evaluation of a unit, facility, or organization that you are familiar with in an attempt to identify the need to address the economic health care issue that you presented in the previous assessment. This systematic evaluation is often referred to as a needs analysis. Understanding how to do a needs analysis will be key as you advance through your career in the health care environment.

Background and Context

As a master's-level health care practitioner, you may sometimes be tasked with the need to complete a systematic evaluation as a way of improving your organization’s outcomes. In this assessment, you will have a chance to practice these skills by completing a systematic evaluation of a unit, facility, or organization that you are familiar with in an attempt to identify the need to address the economic health care issue that you presented in the previous assessment. This systematic evaluation is often referred to as a needs analysis. Understanding how to do a needs analysis will be key as you advance through your career in the health care environment.

Instructions

Be sure to address each main point. Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide, including performance-level descriptions for each criterion, to ensure you understand the work you will be asked to complete and how it will be assessed. In addition, note the requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.

Overall, you will be assessed on the following criteria:

• Summarize your chosen economic issue and its impact on your work, organization, colleagues, and community.
  • Reiterate your rationale for pursuing this issue, as well as the gap contributing to it that you identified in your previous assessment.
• Identify any socioeconomic or diversity disparities that exist with how your chosen economic issue impacts any particular groups or populations.
  • Use at least one piece of evidence to support this disparity (public health data, aggregated data from an organization, or other scholarly resources).
• Explain the findings of evidence-based or scholarly sources regarding the need to address your chosen issue and pursue potential change or implementation plans.
  • For example, if your implementation plan includes the need for increased staffing, you might want to research errors or patient falls that occurred as a result of high patient and low staff ratio in the literature.
  • Use at least four evidence-based or scholarly sources that are relevant to your chosen topic to support your explanation.
• Explain the predicted outcomes and opportunities for growth as the result of the proposed change or implementation plan.
  • Outcomes and opportunities for growth should focus on economic considerations.
• Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.

Additional Requirements

• Length of Submission: 3–5 double-spaced pages.
• Number of References: Cite at least four sources of evidence to support your identification of the gap. This could be public health data, a peer-reviewed journal article, or another scholarly source.
• APA formatting: Titles, headings, resources, and citations are formatted according to the current APA style.

Note: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center's Writing Support page.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Analyze the effects of financial and economic factors (such as cost-benefit, supply and demand, return on investment, and risks) in a health care system on patient care, services offered, and organizational structures and operation.
  • Summarize the chosen economic issue and its impact on your work, organization, colleagues, and community.
• Competency 2: Develop ethical and culturally equitable solutions to economic problems within a health care organization in an effort to improve the quality of care and services offered.
  • Identify any socioeconomic or diversity disparities that exist with how your chosen economic issue impacts any particular groups or populations.
• Competency 3: Justify the qualitative and quantitative information used to guide economic decision making to stakeholders and colleagues.
  • Explain the findings of evidence-based or scholarly sources regarding the need to address your chosen issue and pursue potential change or implementation plans.
• Competency 4: Develop ethical and culturally equitable economic strategies to address dynamic environmental forces and ensure the future security of an organization's resources and its ability to provide quality care.
  • Explain the predicted outcomes and opportunities for growth as the result of the proposed change or implementation plan.
• Competency 5: Produce clear, coherent, and professional written work, in accordance with Capella writing standards.
  • Convey purpose in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards

Write a brief 2-3 page report about a health care economic issue that you have identified. Address the reasons why you selected the issue you did; identify how this issue impacts the work of you, your colleagues, and your organization; and describe the gap that you see contributing to this issue.

Introduction

Note: Each assessment in this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.

Health care economics has the potential to affect each of us either personally or professionally. This impact can be viewed from a health economics point-of-view (where we discuss the value of health care and its efficiency), or it can examine how health care is financed (focus on how health care is funded). Health economics and health care funding have the potential to influence health care outcomes in a variety of ways. As you move through this course, you will work toward developing a potential solution for a health care issue within your current or desired health care system. The goal of this assessment is to identify an economic health care issue that you will address throughout the course.

Context and Background

Health care economics has the potential to affect each of us either personally or professionally. This impact can be viewed from a health economics point-of-view (where we discuss the value of health care and its efficiency) or it can examine how health care is financed (focus on how health care is funded). Health economics and health care funding have the potential to influence health care outcomes in a variety of ways. The bulleted list below outlines topics and health care issues that many institutions encounter. Organizations often have to implement strategies or initiatives to resolve or improve these issues and create positive patient and institution outcomes.

Examples of health care economic issues:

• The influence of health care economics on community health—for example, social determinants of health (such as access to care and health care finance).
• Supply and demand: How do we in the health care environment exist when there are more needs from communities and patients than we have the resources to supply? An example of this would be a high number of patients and low resource levels such as staff, supplies, and equipment.
• The public’s attitude toward health, disease, and the health care system—for example, how money is distributed has the potential to impact the health care outcomes of certain populations. An example of this would be the lack of access and funding for underserved and rural communities.
• Other issues might include access to care, social determinants of health, senior health, food insecurity or food desserts, inadequate staffing, homelessness, rehospitalization environmental issues leading to chronic disease, et cetera.

As you move through this course, you will work toward developing a potential solution for a health care issue within your current or desired health care system. The goal of this assessment is to identify an economic health care issue that you will address throughout the course.

Later in the course, you will (a) conduct a needs analysis to justify your focus on this topic area using the literature of the field, (b) present an argument for change in your organization bolstered by a cost-benefit analysis, and (c) advocate for this change at the state level. Keep these future assessments in mind as you select your topic.

Instructions

For this assessment, you will write a brief 2–3 page report about the health care economic issue that you have identified. In addition, you will also be asked to:

• Address the reasons you selected the issue.
• Identify how the issue impacts the work of you, your colleagues, and your organization.
• Describe the gap that you see contributing to this issue.

Be sure to address each main point. Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide, including performance-level descriptions for each criterion, to ensure you understand the work you will be asked to complete and how it will be assessed. In addition, note the requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.

Overall, you will be assessed on the following criteria:

• Describe a health care economic issue and how it impacts a specific community or population.
  • Note the data, information, or observations used to support your description.
• Explain the rationale for choosing your health care economic issue.
• Explain how the health care economic issue has affected your work, your organization, your colleagues, and your community.
• Identify the gap that is contributing to the need to address the economic issue.
  • Cite at least one piece of evidence to support your identification of the gap. This could be public health data, a peer-reviewed journal article, or another scholarly source.
• Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.

Additional Requirements

• Length of Submission: 2–3 double-spaced pages.
• Number of References: Cite at least one piece of evidence to support your identification of the gap. This could be public health data, a peer-reviewed journal article, or another scholarly source.
• APA formatting: Titles, headings, resources, and citations are formatted according to the APA style.

Note: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center's Writing Support page.

Additional Requirements

• Length of Submission: 2–3 double-spaced pages.
• Number of References: Cite at least one piece of evidence to support your identification of the gap. This could be public health data, a peer-reviewed journal article, or another scholarly source.
• APA formatting: Titles, headings, resources, and citations are formatted according to the APA style.

Note: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center's Writing Support page.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Analyze the effects of financial and economic factors (such as cost-benefit, supply and demand, return on investment, and risks) in a health care system on patient care, services offered, and organizational structures and operation.
  • Explain the rationale for choosing the health care economic issue.
• Competency 2: Develop ethical and culturally equitable solutions to economic problems within a health care organization in an effort to improve the quality of care and services offered.
  • Describe a health care economic issue and how it impacts a specific community or population.
• Competency 3: Justify the qualitative and quantitative information used to guide economic decision making to stakeholders and colleagues.
  • Identify the gap that is contributing to the need to address the economic issue.
• Competency 4: Develop ethical and culturally equitable economic strategies to address dynamic environmental forces and ensure the future security of an organization's resources and its ability to provide quality care.
  • Explain how the health care economic issue has affected your work, your organization, colleagues, and community.
• Competency 5: Produce clear, coherent, and professional written work, in accordance with Capella writing standards.
  • Convey purpose in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.

Write a 2-3 page executive summary that describes the importance of strategic planning, analyzes strategic core concepts for an organization, and describes the organization's next steps.

INTRODRUCTION: Note: Each assessment in this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in the order they are presented.

Health care organization leaders need to understand the external environment in which they operate. Additionally, they need to anticipate and respond to the significant shifts taking place within that environment. An organization engages in service area competitor analysis to:

• Determine the geographic service area.
• Analyze the competitors within that service area for strengths and vulnerabilities.
• Assess the impact of its strategic actions against specific competitors.
• Anticipate potential actions a competitor might make that would endanger the organization's market position.

Analyzing competitors assists organizations in identifying their competitive advantage, the basis on which they are willing to compete with anyone.

For the first assessment, you will review the most recent Environmental Scan report from the American Hospital Association (AHA) and choose one of the factors identified in the report as the basis for your assessment. You will also select a health care organization you will use for all the assessments in the course. Using the factor you selected, you will examine the importance of strategic planning in general and the importance for your selected organization. Based on that, you will describe the next steps for the organization.

Reminder: Complete the assessments in this course in the order they are presented. You will complete sections of a strategic management plan in each assessment.

In this assessment, you'll select a health care organization (either your current employer or the Nor'easter Medical Center Hospital Overview [PDF] Download Nor'easter Medical Center Hospital Overview [PDF]example provided). You are highly encouraged to select your current employer on which to base your work, and if you choose this path, make sure the Learner and Employer Acknowledgement and Release Form from your workplace is completed.

See the Workplace Integrated Learning resource for more information about selecting the health care organization you will use for the assessments in this course.

PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT: Health care organizations have embraced strategic management and developed unique processes for their industry. Health care leaders have found that strategic thinking, planning, and managing strategic momentum are essential for coping with the health care industry's dynamics. Strategic management has become the single clearest demonstration of effective leadership in health care organizations.

Today's health care organizations prepare themselves for the present and the future through strategic management. First, they must understand the importance of strategic planning and its key concepts and components. Health care leaders must determine if their organization's goals align with its mission, vision, and values and if the current strategic plan has been met.

Once strategic leaders are confident the mission, vision, and values are well formulated, understood, and communicated, they then focus on the activities that will make the most progress toward accomplishing the organization's mission and move it toward realizing its vision. These activities are called strategic goals. Finally, health care leaders will assess if there are any needed realignments and make recommendations for next steps.

This assessment allows you to consider the importance of strategic planning and understand the core concepts involved.

ASSESMENT PREPARATION: To begin, review the most recent Environmental Scan report from the American Hospital Association (AHA). AHA produces a new Environmental Scan report each year. Go to the web page found at Assessment 1: AHA Guides/Reports to find the latest environmental scan. Scroll down on the page until you find the link to the Environmental Scan for the current year, and click the link.

After you have read the report, choose one of the factors identified in the report as the basis of your assessment. In the 2023 report, these factors include:

• Financial Stability.
• Workforce.
• Health Equity.
• Behavioral Health.
• Better Care and Greater Value (affordability and access, quality and safety, value-based delivery, and payment models).
• Rural Health.
• Consumerism.
• Social and Demographic Trends.

Using the factor you chose from the AHA Environmental Scan, and your chosen organization, you will describe the importance of strategic planning. Specifically, why it is important to you and why it is important to your organization. Next, you will describe the core concepts of the strategic plan and its next steps. This will include the vision, mission, objectives, strategy, approach, and tactics.

Asking yourself the following questions will prepare you to complete this assessment.

1. Why is strategic management important?
2. How often should a strategic plan be developed?
3. What are the core concepts of a strategic management plan?
4. What type of leadership style is best when creating a strategic management plan?
5. What environmental culture, climate, and design are best to achieve success?
6. Are goals at the organization you selected currently in progress or met?
7. Do current strategies at your selected organization provide value?
8. Do current strategies align with the organization's current mission, vision, and values?
9. What directional pathways should the health care organization take to achieve their strategic objectives? What methods/tools would you use to further analyze the organization's strategies (e.g., SWOT, PESTEL, TOWS, et cetera)?

INSTRUCTIONS: Using the Executive Summary Assessment Template [DOCX] Download Executive Summary Assessment Template [DOCX]provided, write a 2–3 page executive summary. In the executive summary:

1. Describe the purpose of the executive summary, including a brief introduction to your chosen organization.
2. Describe strategic planning's importance to you, and its importance to the organization you selected.
3. Using the factor from the AHA's most recent Environmental Scan report that you selected, analyze the strategic core concepts.
   • Analyze the core concepts of a strategic plan in general.
   • Analyze what the strategic core concepts are for your organization.
4. Consider the organization's next steps.
   • Evaluate the directional pathways the health care organization should take to achieve its strategic objectives.
   • Analyze the methods/tools you would use to further analyze the organization's strategies.

ADDITIONAL REQUIRMENTS: Document Format: Use the Executive Summary Assessment Template [DOCX] Download Executive Summary Assessment Template [DOCX]to create a professional executive summary.

• Document Length: 2–3 pages.
• Supporting Evidence: Include at least 3 academic or scholarly sources.
• Readers of your summary will want to know the sources of your information, so be sure to include all applicable sources.
• One source should be the AHA’s most recent Environmental Scan report.
• APA Formatting: Format in-text citations and references according to current APA style and formatting. Evidence and APA can help with this.
• Submission Requirements: Submit your Executive Summary, and if using your workplace organization, also submit the Learner and Employer Acknowledgement Release Form in the Assessment area

COMPETENCIES MEASURED: By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 2: Develop a strategic organizational plan that provides human and financial resources to support targeted organizational outcomes.
  • Describe the importance of strategic planning to an organization and to oneself.
  • Analyze the core concepts of strategic plans in general.
  • Analyze the core concepts of a strategic plan for a specific organization.
  • Analyze the methods/tools to use to further analyze an organization's strategies.
• Competency 3: Recommend an organizational structure and design to optimize a strategic plan.
  • Evaluate the directional pathways a health care organization should take to achieve its strategic objectives.
• Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for professionals in health care administration.
  • Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.