SWOT Analysis of the Department of Veteran Affairs - Research Paper Example

? SWOT Analysis-Department of Veteran Affairs Dr. Tracy M. Smith Strategic Health Care Management November 25, Introduction The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) develops several health related technologies and other technologies that aids patients and other veterans. The program helps the veterans to come up with their own inventions and teach them how to patent and sell their products to the consumers.One crucial aspectof the VA is the close relationship it has established with the local institutions such as nearby hospitals and medical schools. The VA has its own laboratory where veteran affiliates and other associates conduct their research and each research center has Veterans Administration Medical Centers (VAMCs).These VAMCs act as learning centers for many medical residentswhileoffering them an easy access to VA resources in order to assist them in conducting their own researches. An evaluation of the SWOT analysis of the VA will help in revealing the effectiveness of the organization and its operations. The Department of Veteran Affairs has several strengths that propel its performance above its competitors. To begin with, the VA has several branches across America fully equipped with facilities. According to Biesemeier (2004), high decentralization of the VA has enabled the affiliate beneficiaries’ time to access its facilities to conduct their research. Also, The VA collaborates with other private sectors in an attempt to learn the new technologies and innovations. The organization shares these innovations with the residents who are conducting research. The VA has highly trained employees who are knowledgeable with the latest technology, making it offer quality services to the associates. The staff members are loyal and exercise an excellent teamwork steering up the performance of the VA, thus realizing great achievements. Notably, the organization has portrayed numerous weaknesses that have undermined its progress. First, the veterans have for long launched complains on long delay that they experience before their benefits are processed. Secondly, a government investigator found that the department wasted millions of dollars on training seminars and these findings questioned the transparency and the credibility of theVA. Moreover, the VA lacks proper planning and scheduling strategies as the staff members spend a lot of their time and energy organizing the upcoming conferences. According to Vogel (2013), the VA was unable to account on the budget for the training conferences it had organized even after the conferences had ended several months ago. The existence of such weaknesses in the Department of Veteran Affairs makes the residents to lose confidence and trust with the organization. A critical internal business environment scanning reveals that the VA has a number of opportunities, which it can use to improve its performance. The organization still has a chance to streamline their internal organization to take advantage of the productivity of loyal employees. Marjorie and Maggie (2013) regard worker alignment as the best strategy to streamline the internal business environment. The organization can align their employees by offering them attractive benefit packages to establish a long-term relationship with them. Satisfying the employees will help the organization to ensure that they drive the organizational goals to a fruitful end. By taking advantage of this opportunity, the VA will be able to gain a more competitive position its environment. One of the greatest threats the VA faces is the risk of privatization since it relies on the government for the provision of funds. If the government decides to privatize such a project, it may hurt so many beneficiaries because of lack of proper and strategies and freedom of access of the institution’s properties. Another threat is the high mortality rate of the veteran beneficiaries because of diseases and age factors. As most beneficiaries are elderly people, they have a relatively little time to live and their bodies are generally weak making them vulnerable to illnesses. Additionally, if a government fails to be concerned with the affairs of the veterans, this may make the association to collapse since this institution depends on the government for funds and the elderly do not have enough money and facilities to support it (Kuratko, n.d). There are goals that the Veteran Affairs Department can use in order to ensure proper strategic planning and enhance development. A viable goal would be improving the level of technology in transfer programs of all business transactions within the organization through understanding the current operations. The other important goal is to improve the partnership with other academic based associates and public segments for better interaction with the associates. Additionally, the department should revise its patent policies to make licensing affordable and it can achieve this goal by improving the management patent and making it more transparent to the public (Baker, 2013). These goals will help the organization overcome its threats and suppress the weaknesses undermining its competence. The strengths of the VA have assisted the organization to maintain a competitive position in the business market. The ability of the organization to open many branches in the US has opened its geographical scope, which has helped it increase the size of its target customer population. Existence of many customers has given the organization an advantage over its competitors who have fewer branches. In addition, the organization has taken advantage of IT infrastructure to inject efficiency in its research resource. Integration of IT in the contemporary business environment is a necessary competence for all organizations (Kuratko, n.d). These attributes have helped the organization to remain relevant in the US market. In conclusion, a SWOT analysis of the VA reveals that the organization has capitalized on its strengths to develop a competitive from in a business environment that poses many threats to its operations. However, the organization has a tough challenge to overcome its weaknesses and capture the opportunities that exist in this market. The future of the VA depends on its ability to set clear goals that will neutralize its threats and weaknesses, and push it against the competitive forces of the US market. References Baker, J. (2013). Health care finance. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Bessemer, C. (2004). Achieving Excellence: Clinical Staffing for Today and Tomorrow. New York: American Dietetic Association. Kuratko, D. (n.d.). Entrepreneurship. London: Cengage Learning. Marjorie, S.andMaggie, R. (2013). Occupational Therapy Community-Based Practice Settings. New Jersey: F.A. Davis. Vogel, S. (2013).VA Announces Overtime ‘Surge’ to Battle Disability Claims Backlog. Retrieved from: . Read More