Swot Analysis of Hospital - Coursework Example

The hospital has a lot of strengths that has seen it expand and weather different harsh times to still be running 100 years after its inception. The fact that it has been around for all those years is a strength. The hospital also has a large capacity for a community hospital. Its other strengths include an experienced and knowledgeable staff, its location in the suburbs, the use by a medical school as its research facility and new management. Unfortunately, some of its strengths are also its weaknesses.

These include its old staff, its location in the suburbs and its very old facilities. Other weaknesses experienced by the hospital include very outdated management and operations systems, an emergency department (ED) with loopholes allowing people to exploit the hospital that drain money from the hospital and finally a unionized staff that seems o be keener on finishing their short shifts rather than attending to patients. The hospital has a lot of opportunities to exploit. These include the fact that it is used by a university for its research can attract funds for research and a new management to overhaul things.

Other opportunities include change in description and roles of staff, creating programs to cater for less advantaged members of the community, they have capacity to grow and be bigger and increase beds and an opportunity to combine the history of the hospital and modern facilities to attract high end clients. As of now, the hospital has a lot of threats. First is the relationship between the old doctors and members of the board. The hospital’s poor services and bad publicity can also lead to it being shut down, the lack of motivation by staff leading to poor services is also a threat, and so is the mind set of most of the staff.

Other threats include minimal education by most staff and the reluctance to accept change by the whole hospital community, leaving the hospital decades back in the provision of health care services. The hospital’s strengths can actually help get it out of the red. The experienced staff has had lots of practice with several different cases that young physicians have not. Thus they can help the younger physicians by guiding them. The hospital is very old and the fact that it is still standing can be used by the management to gain trust from patients.

Furthermore, people of the older generations might have some attachment to the hospital, hence remain loyal to it. The acquisition of the hospital by the university means injection of funds and modern technology to the hospital. The new management brings with it different and modern ideas on how to run the facility to meet the modern day’s health challenges. The fact that the hospital is located in the suburbs means that they can provide services specific to the members of the suburbs and its environs in order to attract more clients.

The oldness of the hospital and its current financial woes might mean that the hospital might not have been maintained well or even at all over the years. If the building is dilapidated, some parts not functioning or its equipment are outdated, then it will not be able to cope with the provision of adequate care to patients. That the staff is also made up of old people who insist on using outdated methods to run the hospital is also a factor that has brought it to its knees. Over the years management