Strategy Implementation. Health Care Sector SickKids

Introduction

After the strategies have been developed and formulated for the organization, the following stage of the strategic planning process is the implementation of the strategic plan. This must take into account the effective and smooth implementation of the organization’s strategic plan in order to fulfill the public value aimed to be created during the formulation process. The four mechanisms to implement strategies include: programs, projects, action plans, and budgets. As stated by Bryson, “developing effective programs, projects, action plans, budgets and implementation processes will bring life to the strategies and create more tangible and intangible value for the organization and its stakeholders.”^[1] The following will review how the current strategic plan for SickKids, “Avenues to Excellence: 2010-2015,” has been implemented. The paper will show how SickKids has utilized various programs, projects, action plans, and budgets to implement the six strategies outlined in its current strategic plan.

Strategies

As outlined in the SickKids “Avenues to Excellence” strategic plan for 2010-2015, the six strategies include:^[2]

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

These can then be further dived as grand strategies, functional strategies, and sub-unit strategies. The first grand strategies for SickKids are to Lead in World-Class Quality and Service Excellence and Enhance Child Health Systems. The functional strategies consist of Enable Our People and Building Sustainable Infrastructure. Lastly, the Sub-unit strategies consist of Maintain Financial Health and Innovation. This is the order that the paper will continue to examine the various strategies.

Programs, Projects, Action Plans & Budgets

It becomes necessary to briefly outline what a program, project, action plan, and budget is before describing the ones used by SickKids. The difference between a program and a project is the duration of the both, whereas programs tend to be ongoing activities that can extend an indefinite period of time, projects, on the other hand, are temporary in nature and are designed to deliver a specific result for the company.^[3] Projects have a “specific beginning date and end-date, specific objective and specific resources assigned to perform the work.”^[4] Programs are also “groups of related, ongoing activities that are designed and managed to meet specific, defined needs.”^[5] Action plans can be seen as “a series of actions, tasks or steps designed to achieve an objective or goal.”^[6] Budgets comprise of detailed reports of income and expenditures over a period of one year.^[7]

Lead in World Class Quality and Service Excellence

In order to implement SickKids’ first strategic priority, the hospital intends to establish a program that will create guiding principles for service excellence in both clinical areas of the organization as well as non-clinical areas.^[8] The intended purpose is to ingrain these principles into the culture of the organization in order to create a culture of service excellence.^[9]

SickKids also has a project to optimize patient safety, as noted in the Blueprint for Patient Safety, it will implement ten building blocks for safe patient care. The program will also collaborate with the University of Toronto’s Centre for Patient Safety in research areas involving patient safety and in the development of “wide-ranging education and training programs.”^[10] SickKids also plans to design a program that will allow access to health care for children from various backgrounds, underprivileged communities, and socio-economic levels.^[11] It will involve professionals from the field that will work together to develop strategies to ensure that the most vulnerable in society have access to appropriate care, and facilities such as “emergency, surgical, inpatient and ambulatory care.”^[12]

The next program is designed around performance management. The Enterprise Performance Management program is “a disciplined process for measuring the performance of all clinical care, research, education, operational programs and services against stated objectives and targets.”^[13] It will use scorecards and dashboards in its reporting to assess the abovementioned and to support its enterprise performance management system.^[14]

Enhance Child Health Systems

In order to enhance child health systems as outlined in the SickKids strategic plan, SickKids hospital intends to build strategic partnerships and to find means to collaborate internally in its own organization. SickKids has employed a program called the “Centre Model,” which it will utilize to “enhance collaboration and integration within the organization.”^[15] It will do so by promoting collaboration between health professionals, as well as advancing future policy.

SickKids International is a program that establishes collaboration between international partners. It has three activities globally that fall under: Global Child Health Program, Business Development and the International Patient Office.^[16] The Global Child Health Program (GCHP) works in vulnerable communities in low and middle income countries in order to strengthen local health systems.^[17] It works in countries such as Ghana, Ethiopia, and other sub-Saharan African countries. One of the many programs and projects that fall under the GCHP is the CIDA-SickKids Global Child Health Program. It is a partnership between the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the SickKids Foundation, and SickKids hospital. Its goal is to “strengthen the capacity of paediatric health-care systems and promote child health leadership in sub-Saharan Africa.”^[18] It currently has two ongoing programs taking place in sub-Saharan Africa. The Ghana-SickKids Paediatric Nursing Training Programme is an attempt to train 1,000 to 1,500 Paediatric Nurses in the West African country of Ghana.^[19] The Ethiopia-SickKids Paediatric Nurse Practitioner Training Programme is a similar program designed to develop Nurse Practitioners in the country of Ethiopia.^[20] The Public Engagement in Canada project is a project designed to spread awareness about global child health issues to young Canadians.^[21] In addition, the Programme for Global Paediatric Research (PGPR) also falls under the GCHP set of programs and projects. It aims to bring together paediatric researchers from around the world in order to help alleviate child health issues in developing countries around the world.^[22] It works with networks such as the Global Sickle Cell Disease network and the Global Prevention of Kernicterus Network.^[23] The Caribbean-SickKids Paediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Strategy is a project that will attempt to build a network of specialists in the Caribbean region to help improve the quality of life for children with cancer and blood disorders.^[24] The SickKids No Boundaries is a program that focuses on paediatric surgical care for children in developing countries by collaborating between surgical specialists around the world.^[25]

The second activity of SickKids International is the Business Development division. It utilizes its diverse network of skilled medical professionals to provide advisory services to governments across the world, organizations, and institutions. Its various projects and programs include advisory services in the country of Qatar, where it is engaged in a 5-year partnership project with the Hamad Medical Corporation in order provide advisory services for the development of a new children’s hospital in the city.^[26] It further has a multi-year project in India with the Madanmohan Ruia Raptakos Children’s Hospital (MRRCH) to provide advisory services in phases, which it is currently in stage 2 of the project.^[27] These advisory services include; “clinical and functional plans, medical equipment and information technology.”^[28] Lastly, it has a project established in Ireland to provide advisory services to the development of the national tertiary centre for an 8-year period.^[29] The International Learner Program (ILP) is an educational service designed to allow international health-care professionals to gain experience at the SickKids hospital, through such areas as practice, education, research, and administration, and then apply their acquired skills back in their home countries.^[30] Furthermore, the International Health Assignment Workshop (IHAW) provides health-care professionals with training in international health issues.^[31]

The third activity consists of the International Patient Office and the subsequent International Patient Program which works with international patients who come to the hospital in Toronto to receive specialized treatment. It provides a series of services to the children before their procedure, these include; medical review, financial assessment, family support and case management.”^[32]

[...]

^[1] John M. Bryson, “Implementing Strategies and Plans Successfully,” Strategic Planning: For Public and Nonprofit Organization, 2011, p. 286

^[2] SickKids, "Avenues to Excellence 2010-2015," <http://www.sickkids.ca/pdfs/About-SickKids/Avenues-to-Excellence/24174-SickKids-Strategic-Plan.pdf> p.26

^[3] Class Notes

^[4] Ibid.

^[5] Class Notes.

^[6] Ibid.

^[7] Ibid.

^[8] SickKids, "Avenues to Excellence 2010-2015," <http://www.sickkids.ca/pdfs/About-SickKids/Avenues-to-Excellence/24174-SickKids-Strategic-Plan.pdf> p.22

^[9] Ibid.

^[10] Ibid.

^[11] SickKids, "Avenues to Excellence 2010-2015," <http://www.sickkids.ca/pdfs/About-SickKids/Avenues-to-Excellence/24174-SickKids-Strategic-Plan.pdf> p.22

^[12] Ibid.

^[13] Ibid.

^[14] Ibid.

^[15] SickKids, "Avenues to Excellence 2010-2015," <http://www.sickkids.ca/pdfs/About-SickKids/Avenues-to-Excellence/24174-SickKids-Strategic-Plan.pdf> p.25

^[16] SickKids, “SickKids International,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999-2012, web. 15

June 2012, <http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational>.

^[17] SickKids, “SickKids International,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999-2012, web. 15

June 2012, <http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/aboutSKI/AreasofFocus/Areas-of-Focus.html>.

^[18] SickKids International, “Global Child Health Program,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999

2012, web. 10 July 2012, < http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/38571-SickKids%20GCHP%20factsheet%20Nov2011.pdf> p.2

^[19] Ibid.

^[20] Ibid.

^[21] Ibid.

^[22] SickKids International, “Programme for Global Paediatric Research,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999-2012, web. 10 July 2012, <http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/GCHP/PGPR/PGPR.html>

^[23] Ibid.

^[24] SickKids International, “Global Child Health Program,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999

2012, web. 10 July 2012, < http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/38571-SickKids%20GCHP%20factsheet%20Nov2011.pdf> p.2

^[25] SickKids International. “SickKids No Boundaries.” The Hospital for Sick

Children, 1999-2012. Web. 10 July 2012. < http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/GCHP/SickKids-No-Boundaries/SickKids-No-Boundaries.html>

^[26] SickKids International, “Business Development: Qatar,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999

2012, web. 10 July 2012 <http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/businessdevelopment/Qatar/Qatar.html>

^[27] SickKids International, “Business Development,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999-2012,

web. 10 July 2012 < http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/38572-SickKids%20BD%20factsheet%20Nov2011.pdf>

^[28] SickKids International, “Business Development: India,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999

2012. Web. 10 July 2012. <http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/businessdevelopment/India/India.html>.

^[29] SickKids International, “Business Development,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999-2012,

web. 10 July 2012 < http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/38572-SickKids%20BD%20factsheet%20Nov2011.pdf>

^[30] SickKids International, “International Learner Program,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999

2012, web. 10 July 2012 < http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/learning-opportunities/ILP/International-Learner-Program.html>.

^[31] SickKids International, “Business Development,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 1999-2012,

web. 10 July 2012 < http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/38572-SickKids%20BD%20factsheet%20Nov2011.pdf>

^[32] SickKids International, “International Patient Office,” The Hospital for Sick Children, 19992012, web. 10 July 2012 < http://www.sickkids.ca/sickkidsinternational/38573-SickKids%20IPO%20factsheet%20Nov2011.pdf>.