A strategic plan is not a new term in a healthcare organization’s management lexicon. It is derived from military usage and the need for on-going assessment and self-appraisal of a healthcare organization’s strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. It’s a systematic and defined process leading ultimately to the appropriate strategies, tactics, and techniques necessary to enable a healthcare organization to adapt to change in an ever-changing marketplace. The end result of such a planning process is a clear idea for management of where it should focus its energies and resources in the short, intermediate, and long-term to meet their stated vision, mission, goals, and objectives.
Strategic Purchased Service Plan
A Strategic Purchased Service Plan (SPSP) has many similarities to a strategic planning process in that it is a systematic and defined planning process. Thus, this enables a healthcare organization to appraise the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities or gaps in its Purchased Service Management Program (PSMP). Then, the organization would devise new strategies, tactics, and techniques for reducing, containing, and controlling purchased service costs going forward.
It all begins with defining your vision, mission, and objectives of your new or refined PSMP in terms of what your aspirations are one, two, and five years out. What savings and quality goals are real and achievable? What new policies and procedures are required to align them with your new or reinvented PSMP? What steps do you need to take to develop Value Analysis Purchased Service Teams that will be creative enough to meet the challenges of your PSMP? What challenges can you anticipate that would threaten the success of your new or reinvented PSMP? These are just a few questions you need to ask during this important planning process. The point I’m making here is that a Strategic Purchased Service Plan will position your new or reinvented PSMP to be successful, rather than just let it happen in an unplanned and disorganized manner. We see this every day with healthcare organizations’ PSMPs – a lot of activity, but very little results.
“Nothing Is More Terrible Than Activity Without Insight”
Scottish historian, Thomas Carlyle, is the originator of this quote that sums up the reason a Strategic Purchased Service Plan will help you achieve maximum results with your new or reinvented PSMP. This is because too often healthcare organizations decide to attack their purchased service cost drivers with a lot of activity, but with very little insight into what they are doing currently and what they should be doing in the future. From our experience, without this insight it is next to impossible to drive out, and then maintain, your purchased service costs at their lowest possible levels. If designed properly, your SPSP will provide you with a roadmap for your PSMP to follow over the next three to five years. So, don’t start or refine your PSMP without it!
P.S. If you would like an outline of what a Strategic Purchased Service Plan looks like, just e-mail me at [email protected] and I will send it to you.
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