Business Analysis of St Anns Hospice - Case Study Example

St Anns hospice Table of Contents Background 2. Mission ment 3. Environmental analysis 4. Business objectives 5. Strategic planning, implementation and control for achieving the corporate goals 6. Summary References 1. Background St Ann’s Hospice is the largest hospice in its area – Manchester. The hospice was founded about 40 years ago – its first patients entered the hospice in 1971 (corporate website, history); the employees of the hospice are about 300 who are being supported by approximately 700 volunteers – a total workforce of about 1000 individuals for a population of 1.2 million people – referring to the Greater Manchester area. The services provided by the hospice are not charged; the cost of these services is covered by the state – at a percentage of 35% - and by the public; the number of people supported by the hospice has been estimated to 3000 – on an annual basis; under certain terms, care is provided in the people’s homes – additionally to the services provided in the hospice’s sites (corporate website, home page). The care provided by the hospice is developed within a specific time framework – i.e. no long term care is provided; in accordance with the corporate website, the care provided by the hospice can be of one of the following forms: ‘inpatient services, day therapy and community services’ (corporate website, home page); the target set by the administrators of the hospice is that people are given the care required and return home within a specific period of time – it has been estimated that the average time of stay in the hospice is 14 days (corporate website, home page). The above target does not affect the quality of the services provided to the patients/ individuals who need specific care services; in fact, the care provided by the staff of the hospice is of a high quality – as possible; the control over the time required for the completion of each programme – referring to the care services provided to each individual/ patient by the staff of the hospice – is important for increasing the number of people treated by the hospice’s staff, i.e. to increase the number of cases handled by the staff of the hospice on a regular basis. 2. Mission Statement The mission statement of St Ann’s Hospice can help to understand the role of the specific institution within the community; in accordance with the organization’s mission statement ‘St Ann’s Hospice offers the highest levels of support and palliative care, both through its hospices and within the community, to provide people who have life-threatening illnesses with both dignity and greater quality of life’ (corporate website, About Us, Mission and Vision). The achievement of the targets set by the organization’s mission statement can be evaluated by referring to the organizational environment (internal and external); the reference to the business objectives and the strategies used for their achievement would be also necessary. 3. Environmental analysis As noted above, St Ann’s hospice is the largest hospice in the Greater Manchester area; moreover, the above hospice is among the first institutions of this type established in UK. In Britain, the so-called Hospice Movement started in 1967 – when the first hospice opened in London; today, about 220 hospices operate across Britain. The Hospice Movement introduced a new social tradition in Britain; through the above Movement, the provision of support to people who have specific care needs become a problem of the community. In accordance with the above, the organization’s external environment can be characterized as supportive to the initiatives undertaken by the institution’s staff; this fact is quite important, offering the necessary incentives to people across the community to get involved in the hospice’s activities. In other words, in the external organizational environment no threat or pressure can be identified – perhaps as a result of the Hospice Movement, which emphasized on the importance of hospices for the community. The support offered to the organization by the state and the individuals/ organizations prove the important role of the hospice’s external environment in the development of the organizational activities. Moreover, there is no issue of competition between organizations of the specific form; all hospices aim to help people who have emergent care needs. In its internal environment, the hospice has to respond to the following challenges: the number of staff – including volunteers – is extremely high; the distribution and the supervision of tasks delegated to the employees/ volunteers can be a challenging effort; appropriate policies would be introduced so that the performance of the institution to be improved; actually, the existence of this problem is also highlighted by the organization’s administrators; for this reason, it is noted in the corporate website that efforts will be made so that the percentage of patients who return to their home after the therapy to be increased to 50% - from current percentage of 40% (Corporate website, About Us). As already mentioned above, the services of the hospice are supported approximately by 700 volunteers, a fact proving the active participation of the community in the institution’s activities; at the next level, the organization’s policies would be updated ensuring that cooperation and coordination across the institution is further improved. The environment of the organization – internal and external – will be used as the basis for the development of the various organizational strategies (Dobson et al., 2004, 18) – see section 5 below. 4. Business objectives The performance of the organization could be evaluated if its goals were identified; moreover, strategies would be suggested so that these goals are easily achieved. The business objectives are clearly set in the corporate website; in accordance with a relevant statement of the organization’s founders and administrators the specific institution aims to achieve a series of targets: a) provide to the patients care services of high quality; at the same time, the organization aims to support the families of patients, b) become a high reputable institution in the field of palliative care, c) keep close cooperation with the community in regard to care needs of its members, d) become a well-known workplace – in terms of the support provided to the employees, e) have a key role in the improvement of lives of people in communities across Britain – as noted in the corporate website the hospice units are currently sited in a series of areas, including ‘Manchester, Salford, Trafford, Stockport and parts of Cheshire’ (Corporate website, About Us). 5. Strategic planning, implementation and control for achieving the corporate goals The strategies currently used by the organization for the achievement of business objectives have the following form: a) development of strategic alliances – referring to the cooperation/ coordination developed with other institutions and with organizations of the public sector aiming to protect the firm’s stability – as of the funds required for its daily operations, b) promotion of the firm’s activities through the community – efforts to make people in the community to get involved in the organization’s activity, a target which has been achieved if taking into consideration the current number of the organization’s volunteers. Up to now, the lack of significant challenges and pressures in the firm’s external environment – as described above – have led to the avoidance of introduction of radical strategic changes in each particular organizational environment; it would be necessary for the organization’s managers to become independent from the ‘internal stakeholders’ – referring to the individuals that influence a manager’s decisions (Freeman, 2010, 216) – and take into consideration the potential changes in the firm’s external environment – which are quite possible in the context of the global crisis; the strategic initiatives that could be undertaken by the organization for ensuring – in the long term – the achievement of its objectives would include: a) a detailed plan of succession – referring especially to the employees working at high levels of the organizational hierarchy (Swayne et al., 2006, 215), b) certain changes in the organization’s mission – in order to compete its rivals especially if the level of funding available for the development of the various organizational activities is decreased (Swayne et al., 2006, 216), c) plans for increased innovation across the organization – again, aiming to compete the rivals and ensure the organization’s survival (Swayne et al., 2006, 216), d) update of the training programs provided to employees and volunteers (Forman, 2003, 64) and e) update of the organization’s existing procedures – aiming to decrease costs without affecting the quality of services provided; the above measure should be also developed in case that the financial support of the organization is decreased. In any case, the effectiveness of the strategies chosen for the development of the organization’s performance – in the context described above – should be evaluated after a period of time – following a common practice in the business sector where patience characterizes the evaluation of a firm’s strategic decisions – as, for example, in the case of Nestle – a well known multinational firm (Hitt et al., 2009, 265). 6. Summary The performance of St Ann’s Hospice up today proves the effectiveness of the organizational strategies and initiatives; however, it was also made clear that in the future the organization may have to face severe pressures – if the level of funding provided by its supporters – state and individuals – will be decreased. Of course, the organization has developed its relationship with the communities where it operates – a fact proved by the high number of volunteers engaged in the organization’s various activities. However, the cost of the organization’s services is extremely high – in accordance with the corporate website about £9 million are required for the organization’s activities on annual basis (Corporate website, About us); for this reason, it should be necessary that a series of strategic plans are developed in advance – as suggested in section 5 above – guaranteeing the organization’s stability even if radical changes are taken place in its environment – external or internal. References Courtney, R. (2002) Strategic management for voluntary nonprofit organizations. Routledge Dobson, P., Starkey, K., Richards, J. (2004) Strategic management: issues and cases. Wiley-Blackwell Forman, W. (2003) Hospice and palliative care: concepts and practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning Freeman, E. (2010) Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Cambridge University Press Hill, C., Jones, G. (2008) Essentials of Strategic Management. Cengage Learning Hitt, M., Ireland, D., Hoskisson, R. (2009) Strategic management: competitiveness and globalization: cases. Cengage Learning Jeffs, C. (2008) Strategic Management. SAGE Publications Leibold, M., Probst, G. Gibbert, M. (2005) Strategic management in the knowledge economy: new approaches and business applications. Wiley-VCH Swayne, L., Duncan, W., Ginter, P. (2006) Strategic management of health care organizations. Wiley-Blackwell Online sources St Ann’s Hospice, 2010, available at http://www.sah.org.uk/ Read More