Healthcare Environment
Select a healthcare entity and investigate its mission, vision, and product and service offerings using publicly available information—such as its annual reports, the websites available to assess patient satisfaction, and organizational performance (e.g., Hospital Compare and Healthgrades). You will perform an Internet search for the entity to find available online marketing materials. Check for advertisements in local news publications, magazines, direct mail, and television.
If you currently work in a healthcare organization, you may look at your own organization’s environment. No proper names of entities are to be used in this assignment. Use fictitious names when referring to the entity in this assignment.
With this information, prepare your analysis of the environmental forces you perceive to be affecting this entity.
Use these questions to guide you as you report on and summarize your findings. Be sure to provide justification for your responses.
External environment:
• Is the entity physically located within a rural or urban community? Hint: use Google Maps or another program to locate the entity. Are there other important physical features of the entity (e.g., multi-building campus with various specialty centers)?
• What are the community demographics? Can you identify the socioeconomic status of the community?
• How well positioned is the entity in the community with consideration of location and competition? For example, if you are analyzing a hospital’s physical environment, how many hospitals are located within the community representing potential or current competition?
Internal environment:
• What jobs are available within the organization? Can you determine if there are shortages in key areas (e.g., nursing, which affect the types of services provided and organizational performance)?
• What are the clinical services available to the community?
• Is the organization known within the community (or regionally) for one or more of its services (e.g., pediatric specialty, cancer center, etc.)?
• When was the entity established, and what was its original mission?
• Has the mission of the entity changed over time to respond to the external environment?
