Abstract
Nowadays the home health care industry is varying at a very fast pace. This rapid growth in the home care industry gives rise to both challenges and opportunities for future advancement and profitability. It is very important to keep an eye on the growth, and is the responsibility of an agency to accept the challenges and capture the opportunities by gathering more and more private audiences, keeping a healthy network, and creating a market plan to maximize productivity as well as the profitability of the organization. Home care organizations must constantly make such adjustments to continue the best function. There are a number of techniques that can be used wherever we need to make adjustments. One beneficial technique is the SWOT analysis which involves the analysis of an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as well. SWOT analysis is used extensively in all industries, but if we talk about the healthcare industry it has not been used this much (Tucker, Hughes, Brand, 2015)
SWOT is a kind of strategic planning, mainly performed by an expert panel, who can generally assess the organization from their own critical perspective. This panel may consist of senior management, board of directors, board members, employees, leaders, managers, and technical experts. These panel members assess the organization’s performance on the basis of outcome measures, patient satisfaction, financial status, and organizational performance. Based on these facts and figures, conclusions that are drawn from SWOT analysis are actually expert opinions from the panel (van Wijngaarden, J. Scholten, Wijk, 2012).
SWOT Analysis is generally defined as the organization’s internal or external strengths and weaknesses, its chances for improvement and growth, and the threats that it may suffer from the external environment. Basically, SWOT analysis was designed for industrial use but now it is been used in the health care sector as well.
Following are the steps of SWOT analysis,
- The first step involves the collection and evaluation of the data. This data is dependent upon the nature of the organization; the data can be demographic, health status, funding sources in healthcare, and the existing grade of medical equipment. Once the data is gathered and investigated, the organization’s abilities in these capacities are calculated.
- The second step involves sorting and organizing the data into four groups, i.e., Opportunities, Threats, Strengths, and Weaknesses. Strengths and weaknesses are actually the organization’s capabilities, while the threats and opportunities arise from external factors.
- The third step includes the development of the SWOT medium for each substitute under consideration.
- The fourth step includes implementing SWOT analysis in the decision-making process to define which professional alternate encounters the organization’s calculated plan.
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Strengths
If we talk about the strengths of the home care option, then there are numerous strengths that can be kept in mind; here are some of the basic strengths in the healthcare department.
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Outstanding Workers
Taking good care of people takes many different strengths; it is not something of low importance. When we talk about taking care of elder people, this task has a number of different challenges that can only be encountered by a specific type of person. Not everyone is capable of taking care of elderly people, as it has many challenges, it requires great attention and struggle. However, it can be proven as a well rewarding career opportunity, taking care of someone who is unable to take care of himself. The person can sometimes provide a friendly listening ear, and learn from different people who have stayed on this planet a bit longer than you did. Moreover, helping others who cannot help themselves is a reward that money cannot buy.
To be an outstanding worker, a person has to possess some attributes; that is, he needs to be responsible enough to take part in helping others, and he needs to have a caring attitude towards the person. Moreover, the person should be flexible to manage his timings according to the patient. Other attributes include the respect factor, the person should be respectable enough to capture love from the patients, having patience is another attribute, and last but not least, the person should be supportive as well. Such an attitude of the person adds value to the strength of the home care option.
Strong commitment to community mission
The goal or mission of community care is to increase the level of health and well-being of the community by delivering effective and easily available behavioral healthcare services. The care community considers that high-quality healthcare services are only provided by not-for-profit agencies and NGOs. The person, as well as the organization, must be strong in commitment to achieving community missions.
Outstanding level of organizational efficiency
Organizational efficiency is another factor that may add value to the strength of the home care option. The level of efficiency at which the organization responds to the change and any other critical situation also add value to the strength of the home care options. The ability to communicate with other staff members also represents organizational efficiency.
Weaknesses
Here are some weaknesses in healthcare options,
Lack of social media branding
Engaging your brand on social media is a very difficult task to do. There are many factors that may make your branding difficult on social media; for this purpose, a proper strategy should be implemented for efficient and effective results. Lack of branding is usually considered a weakness in the path of any organization.
Lack of Adequate resources
The lack of adequate resources is also considered a weakness of any organization. The organization that has all the resources that are required to carry on internal functions of any health care organization and the organization that does not has any of them cannot stand together in one place. This lack of resources is the top weakness sometimes for any organization.
Shortage of staff
Shortage of staff may also act as a weakness for any healthcare organization. Shortage in the number of staff means having a deficiency of the main resource that is most needed in the healthcare industry.
Opportunities
Talking about the opportunities in-home care options, there are numerous opportunities that can be kept in mind; here are some of the basic ones.
Growing Community Health Programs
Community health care services and supports are designed to help the patients remain safe in their homes if anything wrong happens, then what precautionary measures that they need to follow? These community health programs are referred to as opportunities in the path of any health care options. Communities grow in number, thus increasing the chances of better healthcare services.
Expansion of business
Expansion of business is also an opportunity in health care options. Expansion in business provides a chance to capture more audiences in rural as well as urban areas; the provision of healthcare services all over the country is only possible if people keep on expanding their organizations and businesses. This business growth tends to ensure the availability of services everywhere.
Growing up in the Passaic County or a community
Home care options are visiting Passaic County, which has served the people of North Jersey for a long time. Having almost 200 certified caretakers on the staff and experience of about 60+ years. The mission of homecare options is to provide service to the community with the promise of excellence. Home care options try to keep patient satisfaction and clinical excellence at their top priority.
Threats
May Lose clients to other companies
Some threats include losing clients to other companies. Clients always prefer to go with a company that has a good background history as well as a well-equipped and centralized system; if the company somehow fails to compete with the client’s demand, then the client may choose another company. This threat may reduce the number of employees rapidly. In order to prevent this, some preventive measures are necessary to apply.
Increase competition from other home care organizations.
In this fast-growing world, advancements in everything are coming constantly and at a rapid rate. Competition among the different home care companies is also increasing as the demand for home care is increasing day by day. In order to compete with other organizations, one must have the ability to be at the top in all aspects, whether it’s about experience or about the staff. This acts as a threat in the path of home care organizations.
Denial of grant
Sometimes a denial of a grant is also an issue for home care organizations. This act is one of the greatest threats to in-home care, as some organizations may not get approval or grant to provide services in the specific area, this is a hurdle in the path of home care services. To cope with this threat, the organization must have to deal with it intelligently.
Conclusion and Future Study
In short, all these factors need to be addressed properly. SWOT analysis can be used to analyze the gap for future studies. Research shows that there are significant gaps in healthcare services, and these gaps must be filled properly to cope with the current work healthcare practices (Wahl, 2015).
References
Tucker, S., Hughes, J., Brand, C., Buck, D., & Challis, D. (2015). The quality and implications of Balance of Care studies: Lessons from a systematic literature review. Health Services Management Research, 28(1-2), 34-45.
van Wijngaarden, J. D., Scholten, G. R., & van Wijk, K. P. (2012). Strategic analysis for health care organizations: the suitability of the SWOT‐analysis. The International journal of health planning and management, 27(1), 34-49.
Wahl, S. (2015). An examination of the effectiveness of America’s current end of life care options available to consumers and the effects on health care professionals (Doctoral dissertation, Utica College).
