Veterans Affairs Strategic Planning - Research Paper Example

? Veterans Affairs Strategic Planning and Veterans Affairs Strategic Planning A strategic plan directly or indirectly reflects an organization’s mission and vision statements. It is a combination of the goals of an organization, plans and aims as well as the necessary steps and actions that are undertaken to achieve the targeted and desired goals (Simmerson, 2011). Many large and small-scale organizations have strategic plans to guide them towards achieving their short-term and long-term goals - the United States of America Department of Veterans Affairs is one of them. The Veterans Affairs department is the second largest department in America after the Department of Defense. By 2013; it has approximately 280, 000 employees (Longman, 2012). Founded over eighty years ago, this department has many roles and responsibilities, and goals and objectives, which are all centered towards the well-being of USA veterans. It operates with an approximate budget of $ 80 billion (Longman, 2012). The VA department helps take care of veteran’s patient care, compensation for veterans injured during their line of duty, provision of education needs, disability claims as well as the provision of manageable home loans. It also takes care of the veterans’ surgery and rehabilitative needs, and funeral and bereavement services, among others (Longman, 2012). The department is guided by some short-term and long-term goals, which are strategically placed to enhance its effectiveness. Its short-term goals run for about 1-5 years. For instance, the department had laid out some short-term goals for the period 2011-2015. Some of them include reducing their claims’ backlog, improving the quality of healthcare by making it more accessible to the veterans, improving their benefits, and offering quality memorial services. The department also aims to improve veteran satisfaction through the provision of education, counseling and financial services (through loan provisions). Health wise, the department realizes that daily changes in heath areas such as the use of technology, legislation and efficiency of health care delivery system are paramount (Peter et al, 2013). This is the reason why some of their healthcare short-term goals include reduction in backlog, keenness in customer satisfaction, quality healthcare, affordable and increased virtual health care, among others. Some of their short-term goals, however, have been converted to long-term goals in an attempt to increase productivity and efficiency (Panangala, 2011). Some of its long-term goals include strengthening the trust between the members and the stakeholders, and reducing veteran homelessness and development of electronic Fully Developed Claims. In an attempt to reduce the backlog, by 2020, the department would want to process disability claims in 125 days, with 98 % accuracy. In addition, it aims at settling over 50, 000 veterans (Longman, 2012). Health wise, the department aims at improving the well-being of veterans, inpatient and outpatient ambulatory services, as well as to develop telehealth services. Reports indicate that American Telemedicine Association has greatly improved medical services, and hence the veteran health care department expects that telehealth will be a great boost (Kotler, Shalowitz and Stevens, 2011; Peter et al, 2013). In addition, it aims at greatly helping veteran patients with Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Through its proposed online portal, (PC@HAC), the health care branch hopes to enable the veterans check their legibility and claim status, online. This is intended to further reduce paperwork and increase the efficiency in the department. Records show that the VA health system is the largest in America, and it is among the best health care providing centers (Panangala, 2011). The strategic plan applied in the Defense Affairs Department, especially the health delivering system is a very effective one. Strategic thinking and analysis show that the Veterans Affairs department has organized its goals in a way that makes them not just realistic, but also attainable (Kotler, Shalowitz and Stevens, 2011). It is also reported that this department has been recognized as one of the most effective, and it recognizes the need for strategic planning (Panangala, 2011). By 2013, the number of veterans in the USA was 22 million (Panangala, 2011; Longman, 2012). Regarding years to come, the strategy behind the department’s short and long- term goals is inspired by the fact that the number of veterans increases day by day, while the technology is advancing at a very fast rate, social-cultural trends are rapidly happening, and veterans are settling into different geographic areas. Their plans will, therefore, enable them embrace the advent of high modern technology and allow veterans and other beneficiaries to access any information regardless of where they are placed geographically (Simerson, 2011; Marcinko and Hetico, 2012). In addition, their healthcare services will improve with the expected increase in demand for health services, which will be enhanced by the use of highly-developed modern technology and possibly an Electronic Health System. There are several key stakeholders that play different roles and contribute to the success of the Veterans affairs. The Compensation Service is a major stakeholder. It enlightens the veterans’ benefits and helps in their compensation (Panangala, 2011; Longman, 2012). The Health Administration Centre provides patient care to the veterans. The St. Anns Hospital is an example of the many health care providing centers operating under the Veteran Affairs department. The education centers provide education to the veterans while the Vocational, Rehabilitation and Employment provide rehabilitative services, and ideas on self-growth through self-employment. Lastly, the Veteran Service Organizations help the veterans understand all their benefits and to their other beneficiaries. The health care provision centers also works in collaboration with the many drug use and drug abuse centers (Longman, 2012). In the department, the unit-level strategy clearly stands out. The unit level of strategic planning is about improving the product or the service and maintaining a competitive advantage over competitors (Simerson, 2011; Kotler, Shalowitz and Stevens, 2011). This is evidenced by the issues and goals related to IT development in its short and long-term plans, where it aims at adopting more modern technology to ensure that its services remain highly-rated. The department anticipates and clearly identifies possible future changes and organizes its future plans based on the future itself. In addition, the unit level is also evidenced in the departments pricing and differentiation. At a corporate level, the department also partners with United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. The two aim to work together, in the long-term, to reduce the number of homeless veterans and eventually bring the cases to zero. On the competitive analysis, the department does not face a lot of competitions from non VA service providers. This is because it provides its services to its clients at a subsidized cost. The prices of their health services vary depending on a veteran’s level of disability. Those, for example, who have lost limbs or the function of any body part in their line of duty, do not pay to access medical care. The other veterans are charged based on what they get from their benefits. Insurance and Medicaid for the veterans also make it cheaper (Longman, 2012). Compared to the non VA service providers, the VA service providers are the cheapest. The department also buys bids from multiple suppliers, commonly referred to as reverse auction, hence reducing the competition from the other health providers (Simerson, 2011). Different organizations adopt different organizational strategies depending on their power in the market, or depending on their short and long-term goals, vision and mission. Directional strategies are all about positioning one’s product or service in the market - the directional strategy chosen by a business can either be because the business wants to grow, to diversify or to cut costs (Marcinko and Hetico; Simerson, 2011). The Veterans Affairs department aims at growing and expanding its services across the board. Therefore, its directional strategies should be aimed at growth and increased productivity - reviewing their health programs is one way of doing this (Kotler, Shalowitz and Stevens, 2011). The growth strategy will be helpful in identifying and clearly laying out the goals, and allocating them a sensible and meaningful time span. Taking dedicated long strategies in the service provision position can work well for the organization (Simerson, 2011). An alternative could be working in collaboration with other health care providing centers to increase their geographical accessibility and expand their services. However, this would need very careful planning to ensure that the collaborating organizations are driven by similar objectives, and that their long-term and short-term goals are correlated (Kotler, Shalowitz and Stevens, 2011). The value-added services provided by this organization can be realized by comparing their vast services to the veterans in the VA department with what non VA healthcare centers offer. The treatment, therapy and counseling are not only cheap but of high quality. In addition, this organization allows the veteran’s family to access healthcare at subsidized fees in the veteran heath care administrations, especially parents and spouses to the veteran (Longman, 2012). The patients' care is highly regarded, while the department also provides additional services like free transport from the hospital for the veterans. References Kotler, P., Shalowitz, J., and Stevens, R. (2011). Strategic Marketing for Health Care Organizations: Building a Customer Driven- Health System. New York: John Willey and Sons. Longman, P. (2012). Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Healthcare Could Work Better for Everyone. London: A BC-CLIO. Marcinko, D.,and Hetico, H.(2012). Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations: Management Strategies, Operational Techniques, Tools, Templates and Case Studies. New York: CRC Press. Panangala, V. (2011). Veterans Affairs: Healthcare and Benefits for Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange. New York: Diane Publishing. Peter, M., Ginter, P., Jack, D., and Linda. S. (2013).The Strategic Management of Healthcare Organizations. New York: John Willey and Sons. Simerson, B. (2011). Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide to Strategy Formulation and Execution. London: ABC-CLIO. Read More