Assessment of strategic management practice in private nonprofit hospitals in Greater Beirut. (c1996)

Abstract

Why to leave the success and survival of a hospital to chance? A well-thoughtout plan, with problems identified, and a course of action agreed upon do not guarantee success, but greatly decrease the chances of failure. In light of the turbulent environment, both within and outside the hospital, hospital directors should pursue an approach to meet present and future changes and challenges. This approach is but the Strategic Management Practice that involves monitoring environmental changes, developing the strategic plan, implementing the plan, and evaluating the results. Innovative strategic planning and strategic management will enable the hospital not just to maintain but to expand its role in providing primary as well as preventive health care to all those in need. Although the stress is very much on what should occur in the future, it should be remarked that it is the steps taken today which dictate whether or not the future becomes a reality. Therefore, strategic management should be firmly grounded in the realities of today and must have a clear vision of the future as well. The aim of this study is to assess the practice of strategic management in private non-profit hospitals in Greater Beirut. Since strategic management is primarily a top management function, private in-depth interviews through the use of a structured questionnaire were done with the directors of ten private non-profit hospitals. Moreover, an interview with the General Director of Ministry of Health, Dr. W. Ammar was done to back up the findings. The results of this study reveal that most of these hospitals practice strategic management on an informal basis. Moreover, many of them are practicing in fact, the long-range planning, a previous stage in the development of management towards strategic management. Thus, strategic thinking and not really strategic management exists. Nevertheless, these hospitals accommodate with the environmental changes and are driven by the underlying problems of the existing health care system in Lebanon. Thus, the need to overcome these problems by altering the present situation requires more than the existing strategic thinking or informal strategic management. It requires the action incurred by establishing a formal process of strategic management. Further, these hospitals, aiming at providing the best quality of care at the lowest cost, are highly recommended to cooperate and collaborate together in order to overcome the future common threat, the competition with Israel and the Arab region once the Peace Treaty has been signed. The Lebanese government will not be able anymore to protect its market once the whole region becomes one unified big market. Finally, a national health planning strategy from the government is highly needed in order to regulate the hospital industry in Lebanon. According to Dr. Ammar, this strategy will be implemented in the coming years. Consequently, these hospitals will be able to practice strategic management in a more regulated environment and on a formal basis.