SWOT Analysis in Healthcare

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning tool that provides a reasonable and straightforward assessment. SWOT Analysis evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization. When building a marketing campaign or brand for your organization, it’s important to understand the internal and external elements that can affect the proposed strategy.

Data Collection

The SWOT Analysis begins with a strong and detailed data collection process. Many managers find the data collection step to be the most challenging. During this process, it’s important to identify your stakeholders, competitors, customers or recent regulations that could negatively impact your organization.

For example, if we were assigned to build a marketing campaign for a small pediatric clinic, we may begin the data collection process by establishing the target (Stakeholders/customers) population. In this scenario, stakeholders are the parents, patients, doctors, nurses, and insurance companies. They all have a particular interest or investment in the clinic. Since parents and providers were recognized as stakeholders, we could generate data by creating surveys, perform a benchmark and abstracting aggregate data from the electronic health record. Identifying stakeholders makes it easier to create data collection methods.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats

Once the data has been collected, it should be divided into four categories (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats). As internal elements, Strengths and Weaknesses are considered to be a current reflection of the healthcare organization. On the other hand, Opportunities and Threats are considered external elements that can derive from government regulations, competitors or market trends. Strengths explains what the organization is currently doing right. In many cases strengths includes controllable resources and actions. Weaknesses encompass and pinpoints areas of improvement. It describes disadvantages such as bad reputation, lack of technology or staffing issues.

Opportunities identify any new initiatives or trends that could benefit the organization. This includes new technology aimed at improving productivity (ex: EHR’s) or minimum competition in an emerging market. Threats are considered the most important element of a SWOT Analysis, because it’s an external factor that can significantly damage your organization. Threats are any concept that can limit the progression or existence of your organization. Threats may range from changes in insurance policies to an economic recession.

While we have a moment, let’s compare these concepts to the rural pediatric clinic mentioned earlier. Strengths of this particular clinic are its cultural connection and community involvement. Weaknesses involve their rural location. Due to their remote location, they often have difficulty obtaining new technology or medicine. On the contrary, they could adopt a telemedicine (Opportunities) system to remedy the problem. A major threat to the pediatric clinic can come from the closing of the local mill, which is the largest employer in town.

Marketing Campaign

SWOT Analysis provides a sturdy foundation for an aggressive marketing campaign. It highlights areas of focus and opportunity. When reviewing hospitals that could benefit from a SWOT Analysis, please ensure that you examine the entire organization. You could inspect a department, unit or workflow. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to revamp the image or product of that organization. For example, why would you go to Best Buy over Wal-Mart to purchase a television, or purchase a Lexus instead of a Camry? Is it quality or image?