Week 6

By: Connor Ledbetter

The case study this week was an interesting one for me due to the overlap that it has with a class that we have previously taken, strategic planning. This past summer I had the opportunity to work first hand on the strategic planning process and saw what it constitutes first hand. Yet, my experience with strategic planning to date has all been done at the level that focuses on the organization as a whole. This case study emphasizes the importance of developing a strategic plan for a single department, in this case the HIT department. Further, through our research on the case study and answering some of the essential questions that we developed for our main blog post this week I came to realize a couple of complimentary benefits that arise when departments conduct a strategic planning process. On one hand an HIT strategic plan will help align the goals of the department with the overall goals of the organization. On the other hand a strategic plan for the HIT department can help to enlighten the rest of the organization, specifically senior leadership, on the needs and plans for the department moving forward.

A significant take-away for me from this case study and our research this past week is the importance of planning and transparency in throughout the planning process, whether that is done at the organizational level or for a specific department. I do not have a desire to work in HIT in the future, however the lessons that this case study brought forward are applicable to any number of departments or functions within a hospital. If, in the future, I am in a position to develop a strategic plan I will remember to keep in mind how important it will be to make the plan both known to the department as well as senior leadership. I will need to ensure that the goals and objectives of the plan align and pursue the goals and objectives of the organizational strategic plan, and I will be need to ensure that the strategic planning process considers the opinions of all stakeholders involved.