Implementing Strategic Planning Practices in Health Facilities.

Abstract

Strategic planning practices allow improvement of organizations performance by establishing guidelines in form of clear vision, mission statements and performance expectations including performance indicators. The study focused on the leadership and governance pillar of health system building block. The main objective of the study was to determine challenges of implementing strategic planning practices adopted by MP Shah Hospital to achieve its performance, with the specific objectives being how communication, staff participation and capacity building influence implementation of strategic planning practices in MP Shah Hospital. This was a descriptive case study limited to MP Shah Hospital with target population being key professional employees; sample of 139 out of 349 key professionals was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data using structured questionnaires for key professional employees and key informant interview guide for the unit managers. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study took advantage of computer software SPSS for data analysis, correlation analysis determined the significance relationship between independent variables (communication, staff participation and capacity building) and dependent variable (organizational performance), Pearson product indicated a positive correlation. Regression analysis indicated r = 0.736 that changes in the dependent variable(organizational performance) were influenced by changes in independent variable(communication, staff participation and capacity building) by 73.6%, while other factors not investigated in the study contributed to 26.4% of organizational performance. The study found out that 91.3% were aware of strategic planning practices in MP Shah Hospital, while 51.4% agreed it was highly useful in determining performance. From the findings only 62% are involved in the implementation process, this was majorly affected by communication whereby majority felt communication was not timely (64%), support supervision was lacking since majority 69.6% did not know if it exists. The study also found out that MP Shah was performing above average in clinical performance, and customer retention. It was also noted that they needed to improve on developing effective strategies and establishing priorities in order to improve its performance. The study therefore recommended that strategic planning practices be emphasized in terms of capacity building in order to improve performance of health facilities