Summary:
A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used by many healthcare organizations to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective.
• Strengths are attributes of the organization that are helpful to achieving the objective.
• Weaknesses are attributes of the organization that are harmful to achieving the objective.
• Opportunities are external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective.
• Threats are external conditions which could do damage to the business’s performance.
Directions:
In the following exercise, you will be asked to choose a total of 16 questions related to your healthcare organization. You will first be asked to choose four questions from the Strengths category, and then you will be asked to answer those questions. You will then be asked to choose and answer four questions from the Weakness category, the Opportunities category, and finally, the Threats category. Use brief bullet points when addressing the SWOT questions in the simulation. To put this in perspective, consider this simulation a practice exercise in preparing a document you might present at an executive meeting or to your Board of Directors.
You can navigate from section to section to edit your questions and answers at any time during the exercise. At the end of the exercise, you will have a SWOT matrix in a PDF format.
Click the “next arrow” button on the bottom right of this interface to proceed.
Strengths:
What do you do well? What are your organization’s advantages? Consider this from your point of view and that of others. Be realistic, but not modest. Add to this a list of your characteristics. Hopefully, some of these will be strengths.
How do these strengths enable your organization to meet customer and patient needs?
How do these strengths differentiate the organization from its competitors?
Choose four of the following questions you would like to answer and click the “next” button.
Advantages of Services Capabilities Competitive Advantage USP’s (unique selling points) Physical Resources, Assets Experience, Knowledge, People (Human Capital) Financial Stability, Fiscal Responsibility Marketing – Reach, Market Share, Brand Innovation and Differentiation
Location (Real/Virtual) Price, Value, Quality Accreditations, Qualifications, Certifications of Staff Processes, Systems, HIT, Operations Cultural, Attitudinal, Behavioral Committed Primary Care Providers Management/Leadership Succession, Knowledge Management Dedication to Community
Strengths:
Price, Value, Quality
Accreditations, Qualifications, Certifications of Staff
Committed Primary Care Providers
Dedication to Community