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As Mountain View Health Center (MVHC) moves forward with a merger to ensure its community’s access to high-quality care, involving all key stakeholders is necessary to develop its new strategic plan. The next steps for MVHC leaders are to identify the internal and external stakeholders and focus on building these relationships amongst the groups. This discussion post will highlight these essential elements for MVHC to consider and how these partnerships impact the success of the strategic plan.

Internal and External Stakeholders

Marquis and Huston (2017) define stakeholders as the “entities in an organization’s environment that play a role in the organization’s health and performance or affected by the organization” (p. 305). The internal stakeholders of MVHC are the board of directors, physicians, nurses, ancillary staff, and other healthcare providers (Laureate Education, 2013). Companies do not always choose external stakeholders. These external stakeholders take an interest in a company and will influence decision-making (Marquis et al., 2017). External stakeholders for MVHC include community centers, network hospitals, insurance companies, patients, and regulatory bodies (Laureate Education, 2013; Sare & Ogilvie, 2010).

As MVHC explorers a merger with a network hospital to keep the facility operating and providing access to necessary care for its community, stakeholder involvement is essential. This group of diverse people is not only responsible for this significant decision, but also for building the hospital’s new strategic plan after the merger takes place.

Cultivating Relationships

Internal and external stakeholders may have differences in opinion on the future of a company. For this reason, team and consensus building regarding the future is critical. Engaging stakeholders early in the process through one-on-one interviews and establishing roles and responsibilities provides members an opportunity to utilize their expertise and to build bridges with other group members (Sare et al., 2010).

Once consensus is built and the focus shifts to strategic planning, there are methods to help move the team forward. These strategies include video conferencing to allow stakeholders to participate in discussions regardless of location, written summaries of meetings when personnel cannot attend, and organizing a one-day long meeting in advance so key stakeholders can participate in person (Murphy-Hoefer, Andrade, Maines, & Martin, 2011).

Partnerships for Successful Strategic Planning

Stakeholder involvement is essential when developing strategic plans, such as exploring new partnerships to expand access to care in the case of MVHC. Providing options to stay up-to-date, such as video conferencing, live meetings, and meeting summaries solidifies the message regarding the plan. It allows all stakeholders to communicate the standard information and with the same transparency to the consumer (Murphy-Hoefer et al., 2011). Additionally, as MVHC plans for a merger with its network partners, it will be critical to reassure the public of their mission and vision for the community’s health. A strategy to convey this change, but reaffirm their commitment is to use media coverage and advertisements to inform MVHC’s consumers (Murphy-Hoefer et al., 2011).

Conclusion

There are a variety of groups who qualify as MVHC’s stakeholders, and engaging them is critical to the future success of the hospital. Planning meetings should take place with a variety of participation methods to meet the needs of all stakeholders. Ensuring these stakeholders stay involved in plan developments and conveying changes to the community are essential to delivering uninterrupted patient care. This approach ensures the success of strategic plans.

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013b). Case study: Mountain View Health Center [Interactive media]. Retrieved from CDN database.

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

Murphy-Hoefer, R., Andrade, M. S., Maines, D. E., & Martin, M. (2011). Stakeholder input in establishing an evaluation plan for tobacco counter-marketing campaigns. American Journal of Health Education, 42(2), 66–73.

Sare, M. V., & Ogilvie, L. (2010). Strategic planning for nurses: Change management in health care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.