Aspects of Knowledge-Economy Management - Essay Example

? Revised Strategic Plan Introduction Strategic planning for various health centers is of paramount importance. This is because of the ever-emerging serious medical cases that need proactive approach to both prevention and treatment. If good plans are not put in place, then that means when disasters hit, alarming effects will be the order of the day dragging these medical places into chaotic scenes. For example, access to medical services related to diseases such as tuberculosis is very important. This is because, for instance, the global detection rate is still low for TB leading to a fear that over 50% of patients with this disease have not been diagnosed so far despite having 1.6 million cases of deaths reported in 2005 only. In this paper, the approach given to the analysis has taken into consideration the aspects of knowledge-economy management since skills and knowledge that human resources has together with the information technology practices have played an important role in realizing the strategic plans that Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) has seen. Brooke Army Medical Center Located at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, BAMC is one of the USA Medical Commands. This Health Science Centre belongs to the University of Texas and the USUHS teaching hospital. It also has the Army Burn Center. This hospital currently has the capacity of 450 beds for inpatient care which is a JCAHO-accredited facility that could still be expanded to a tune of 653 beds if at all a disaster emanates. The services offered by this health center comprise of general medical and surgical services, pediatric and adult primary care clinics, specialty clinics, emergency services, clinical, wellness and prevention, veterinary care and also offers environmental health services. This organization has had to tackle its strategic plans with a keen eye, revising it with time as changes occur both in the local and global environment. Various tools, proven to be effective in the strategic planning process, have been put to use in this exercise (BAMC). These have been TOWS and Portfolio analysis, among others meant to find a lasting solution to strategic alignment in healthcare provision. TOWS analysis This is a very effective way that is used to combine the internal strengths of BAMC’S strengths with its external opportunities and threats; and linking its internal weaknesses with those external opportunities and threats in its process of coming up with a well-developed strategy. While doing the above, strengths are considered one after the other as is the case of SWOT with every opportunity so as to establish how this internal strength could assist in optimization of the available opportunities. Same is done for threats in determining how external threats could be mitigated by the internal strength. The weaknesses are listed in reference to SWOT analysis to find out how the internal weakness could be eliminated by the use of each external opportunity. Finally, all the weaknesses are listed, one after the other with each threat. This is to establish how both could be done away with. The analysis has been presented in the tabulation below: Table 1: TOWS analysis of BAMC Internal Strengths: 1. Stronger R&D and Medical Engineering 2. Strong Medical team that is both professional and well trained Internal Weaknesses: 1. Heavy reliance on government support for major projects 2. Rising medical costs External Opportunities: 1. Growing number of insured patients 2. Public goodwill for the Army medical services provision SO: 1. Build reliable state-of-the art medical units to support premium and ICU patients 2. Increase medical staff to cater for the growing public support since more patients are expected WO: 1. Charge more for insured patients to support healthcare provision needing huge government support so as to be self-reliant 2. Seek government subsidies on BAMC’s medical supplies such as tax waiver to offer more health services to the growing public demand due to more patients preferring the BAMC to others. External Threats: 1. Terrorist attacks- fears of terrorists striking medical centers abound. Threatens security of patients and medical providers 2. Fuel shortages and increasing prices of medicines. This forces the medical center to increase charges to patients ST: 1. Reduce the effects of terrorism fears by deploying more security agents and tracking down terrorist networks within and without BAMC. 2. Improve the level of fuel consumption by developing or buying fuel efficient diesel engines and seek government support on reducing medical supplies’ prices. WT: A. Overcome the weaknesses by turning them into strengths as the best strategy B. Reduce overreliance on government by being self-reliant through initiation of efficient systems, saving programs, project fund establishment, and doing more R&D to come up with other diversified products which could even be sold to the public to raise money for medical projects. Portfolio Analysis This analysis puts into consideration complex alternatives through the process of systematically examining the decisions made, uncertainties as regards the probabilities and scenarios at hand and the preferences which are value, time and risk. There are some reasons why BAMC would opt for the portfolio decision analysis tool when it comes to setting up its strategic plans. These include the need to create value for BAMC’s customers and its stakeholders. This pool is made up of the patients (customers), government, army and the general public who have shown huge interest in the organization. Here, value is defined as the projects’ assessment means and customers and other stakeholders are given confidence that they will be catered for as far as their needs are concerned; manage the current and future portfolio decision-making process which ensures its execution, assessment of certainty and help in managing risks that abound; and give a very objective and decision rationale that is most transparent, which is able to provide the overseers and decision-makers the required confidence that funds are being put to good use (Newman, et al., 1-14). The knowledge and skills of the organization is a very important input into such an analysis. The contribution this management of knowledge as an economic asset is of critical value to the strategic planning process and implementation. A closer scrutiny of the various domains such as market domain, product domain and the subsequent investments into these domains is also of necessity. The portfolio analysis of BAMC domains has been carried out as shown in the table below. Table 2: Portfolio analysis of BAMC Factor Healthcare Costs Organizational objectives that are illustrative Increase the customers and stakeholder’s value Do best to improve the health and quality standards of life for BAMC patients Minimize patient casualties and damages through public awareness initiatives Reduce costs through efficient operations management Major uncertainties Emerging new causes of diseases Drugs and medicines efficacy levels Costs of diseases emergencies are high so needs early tracking. Anticipate and mitigate disease causes. Technology development Efficacy of medicines and drugs increased Unwanted side effects of medical products drastically reduced Improve and innovate new technologies to reduce costs associated with poor technology. Develop further the research and development section Schedule uncertainties Increase success level of medical trials FDA approvals be sought Reduce acquisition costs Develop in-house if deemed cheaper Strategic partnerships Consider mergers and acquisitions with other major private healthcare providers within the United States Seek partnerships most especially in technology providing firms Shorten purchase procedures to avoid bureaucratic practices that increase costs by partnering with suppliers to employ ERP systems that link the firms with BAMC to necessitate lean practices such as JIT Cost uncertainties Strategically place BAMC services in the healthcare market to gain competitive advantage by being the most preferred service provider thus able to cater for uncertainties in costs that could emerge Good positioning in the market based on market domain and product domains will help give it the best levels of revenue to foot its costs and make some marginal income Intra-organizational competition for resources Enhance the plans set for divisional allocation of resources to various departments Reduce idle resources by cross-resources-re-allocation whenever one department is seen to underutilize allocated resources to cut on costs associated with idle resources/resources underutilization costs. Review of Portfolio Decisions President, Congress, Board of directors, Military Hierarchy, Senior commanders of the Army and Senior Government officials, and Office of Management of Budget. President, Congress, Board of directors, Military Hierarchy, Senior commanders of the Army and Senior Government officials, and Office of Management of Budget. (Ewing, et al., 33-49) Conclusion Strategic planning requires huge inputs based on resources and the knowledge amassed through knowledge-economy management (OECD 2-23). Various tools do exist, which could be of great use to the strategic planning processes. It is of paramount importance that all the interested groups and those affected by these plans are put into consideration while drafting the strategic plans. Works Cited BAMC, "U.S. Army Medical Command: Brooke Army Medical Center." n.d. 21 8 2011 . Ewing, P., Tarantino, W., and Parnell G., Use of Decision Analysis in the Army Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005 Military Value Analysis, Decision Analysis Journal, Vol 3, No1, March 2006, pp. 33-49 Newman, A. M., G. G. Brown, H. Holtz, and R. F.Dell, How U.S. Air Force Space Command Optimizes Long-Term Investment in Space Systems, Interfaces, Vol. 3, No. 4: (2003), 1-14 OECD, THE KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY: Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OCDE/GD (96)102: (1996), 2-23 Read More