Strategic Plan Development

Strategic planning in healthcare is vital for addressing complex challenges and ensuring alignment with organizational goals. Using the balanced scorecard approach, this strategic plan outlines the priorities of the Department of Medicine within the Mayo Clinic, focusing on patient-centered innovation, equity, and efficiency. The Department of Medicine aims to enhance patient-centered care through digital innovation, improve operational efficiency, and foster an inclusive and collaborative culture, aligning with Mayo Clinic’s strategic pillars of practice innovation, business development, and people-focused transformation (Caine et al., 2022).

Building on the appraisal of Mayo Clinic’s strategic objectives, this plan aims to align departmental goals with the organization’s mission to inspire hope and deliver superior health care.

Department Strategic Priorities

The Department of Medicine at Mayo Clinic is pivotal in advancing the organization’s mission of providing exceptional patient-centered care, groundbreaking research, and world-class education. The department’s strategic priorities directly contribute to the organizational goals of innovation, quality, and sustainability (see Appendix A). Within the financial area, the department plans to decrease operating costs for the next twelve months by 10% through effective management of resources and rationalization of workflows. This priority aligns well with Mayo Clinic’s organizational strategic plan for sustainability to provide for future long-term financial needs.

This priority is very important because controlling operating costs increases the sustainability of the department’s budget, enabling it to deliver high-quality care while maintaining efficient resource use. This priority is feasible because areas of wastage can be easily highlighted for the department with data analytics, eliminating flows that do not impact patient care and leading to further cost reductions. A study by Homauni et al. (2023) recommends resource management through Performance-based Budgeting (PBB) to align the incentives with organizational goals, stating this approach improves resource allocation by incentivizing providers to focus on improving outcomes and optimizing processes.  

In the customer domain, the department aims to increase patient satisfaction scores by 15 % in the next fiscal year. This is to be worked out by identifying areas like communication, care transition, and the amount of waiting time. This priority is crucial to Mayo Clinic’s objective of offering patients the best experience to build confidence and firmly stick to the Clinic for retention purposes. It is feasible to achieve this by accreditation of special training courses for staff, effective patient feedback tools, and including patients’ preferences in organizational and management structures (Ferreira et al., 2023). 

NURS FPX 8010 Assessment 3 Strategic Plan Development

The focus on the internal area of a business is the proposed procedure of introducing the digital scheduling system during the first half of the year. This initiative supports Mayo Clinic’s strategic direction of reporting operational excellence and innovations through technology in functional operations. Kachooei et al. (2023) concluded that web-based online scheduling systems can significantly improve patient outcomes by reducing no-show rates and accelerating the progression to surgery. These findings suggest that healthcare providers may benefit from online scheduling systems to streamline administrative processes, improve patient engagement, and enhance clinical efficiency. This priority is realistically attainable and effective in eliminating complicated bureaucracy and improving patient care because of the advanced tools in the department and the distribution of resources. For instance, Mayo Clinic can automate the process, reducing the reliance on manual data entry and allowing patients to choose their appointment slots, simplifying administrative tasks directly.

Next, in the learning and growth domain, the department will expand the staff training hours by 20% in the next year to prepare for changes in medical performing technological and caring practices. This priority aligns with Mayo Clinic’s organizational objective of achieving a learning culture and is essential to the organization’s success and global positioning. The objectiveness of this goal is supported by the fact that structured training programs and support of the learning environment are guaranteed across the department, thus making this a plausible goal regarding professional development.

Mash and Edwards (2020) agree that the learning environment is crucial for enhancing future practice delivery in healthcare. When practice development is encouraged, and the appropriate resources are given to healthcare workers, their competence increases, and so do cohesion and patient care benefits. With the goals above, the Department of Medicine does more than meet its unique targets; it also advances Mayo Clinic’s core values of commitment to innovation, teamwork, and sustainability.

Effects of Organizational Policies

Organizational policies significantly influence the strategic priorities of the Department of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, shaping its operations and goals to align with the broader institutional mission. These policies, such as those governing financial management, patient care standards, technology adoption, and workforce development, directly impact the department’s ability to achieve its strategic objectives. For instance, the Mayo Clinic organization has a Cost Containment Policy that requires the appropriate utilization of resources to maintain its financial stability while delivering quality care (Ong & Vigonte, 2024). This policy aligns more with achieving the departmental financial objective of decreasing operational costs by ten percent.

To meet guidance on the department’s initiatives to follow value-based procurement, expense monitoring, and energy utilization, the department can demonstrate the initiatives’ compliance with organizational norms of procurement and expenses without incurring unnecessary costs.The Patient-Centered Care Policy at Mayo Clinic requires the improvement of patient satisfaction through effective communication and collaboration (Simpson et al., 2022). This policy supports one of the various strategic objectives attached to the department – the ability to raise patient satisfaction scores. This policy inherently supports inclusivity by emphasizing the importance of understanding and addressing diverse patient needs. It encourages healthcare providers to practice empathy, cultural competence, and equitable treatment for all patients, regardless of background.

NURS FPX 8010 Assessment 3 Strategic Plan Development

 It provides guidelines for care standards and the foundation for training and feedback processes, through which the department can create more successful service delivery and increase patients’ confidence.Mayo Clinic’s Technology Integration policy aims to implement solutions to carrying out organizational processes and patient care responsibilities. This policy addresses the realistic internal process goal of adopting a digitized scheduling system (Simpson et al., 2022).

It discourages the haphazard adoption of technologies that may disrupt care delivery while improving efficiency by providing a framework for adopting technologies and training employees to use the related technology. The Workforce Development Policy strongly supports the concept utilized at Mayo Clinic and up-skilling workers. This policy enhances the department’s achievement of the learning and growth objective by raising the number of training hours among the staff by 20%. It provides means and criteria for professional development programs and skill advancement that reflect current and future healthcare needs. It promotes inclusivity and enhances organizational culture by encouraging continuous learning and professional growth for all employees (Banta et al., 2021).

Departmental Strategic Priorities with Organization’s Strategic Plan

The crosswalk table highlights the alignment between the Department of Medicine’s strategic priorities and Mayo Clinic’s organizational strategic plan, illustrating how departmental initiatives support broader institutional goals. For instance, enhancing financial sustainability for business development aligns with operational efficiency and economic growth, ensuring resource optimization without compromising care quality. Similarly, delivering superior patient-centered care reflects Mayo Clinic’s foundational mission: “The needs of the patient come first.” Streamlining internal processes aligns with the organization’s focus on innovation and excellence, fostering continuous improvement in care delivery.

Lastly, promoting a learning and development culture supports workforce development and leadership excellence, equipping staff with the skills to meet evolving healthcare demands (Caine et al., 2022). To address inclusivity and organizational culture, the department’s efforts to foster diversity, equity, and a collaborative environment are integrated into all priorities, ensuring alignment with Mayo Clinic’s values of diversity and inclusivity, critical to sustaining a cohesive and innovative organizational culture.

Conclusion

Therefore, the Department of Medicine at Mayo Clinic contributes significantly to the organization’s core strategic objective of offering quality patient services and facilitating innovation and employee training. Strategic objectives based on financial responsibility, patient satisfaction, effectiveness, and workforce allow the department to support the Mayo Clinic’s mission and vision. Integrating policies from the organization, such as cost control and patient focus, use of technologies, and training, enhances the department’s capacity to address the following priorities. The department supports the vision of diversity and excellence within the organization by promoting a culture of opportunities and cooperation, simultaneously improving staff’s patient care and working conditions.

References

Banta, C., Doran, K., Duncan, E., Heiderscheit, P., Jensen, R., Jorgenson, J., Rechtzigel, B., & Shtylla, S. (2021). A virtual leadership program’s impact on employee leadership development at a healthcare organization. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 18(Spring), 1c. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8120676/ 

Caine, N. A., Ebbert, J. O., Raffals, L. E., Philpot, L. M., Sundsted, K. K., Mikhail, A. E., Issa, M., Schletty, A. A., & Shah, V. H. (2022). A 2030 vision for the Mayo Clinic Department of Medicine. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 97(7), 1232–1236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2022.02.010 

Ferreira, D. C., Vieira, I., Pedro, M. I., Caldas, P., & Varela, M. (2023). Patient satisfaction with healthcare services and the techniques used for its assessment: A systematic literature Review and a Bibliometric Analysis. Healthcare, 11(5), 639. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10001171/ 

Homauni, A., Moghaddam, N. M., Mosadeghkhah, A., Noori, M., & Abbasiyan, K. (2023). Budgeting in healthcare systems and organizations: A systematic review. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 52(9). https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v52i9.13571 

NURS FPX 8010 Assessment 3 Strategic Plan Development

Kachooei, A., Plusch, K., Kasper, A., D’Amore, T., & Beredjiklian, P. (2023). The effect of outpatient web-based online scheduling versus traditional staff scheduling systems on progression to surgery and no-show rates. Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 28(1), 23–23. https://doi.org/10.4103/jrms.jrms_738_22 

Mash, B., & Edwards, J. (2020). Creating a learning environment in your practice or facility. South African Family Practice, 62(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/safp.v62i1.5166 

Ong, M. V., & Vigonte, F. (2024). Enhancing financial performance: Cost management strategies in healthcare organizations. Social Science Research Network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4862408 

Simpson, K., Nham, W., Thariath, J., Schafer, H., Eriksen, M. G., Fetters, M. D., Serlin, D., Peterson, T., & Abir, M. (2022). How health systems facilitate patient-centered care and care coordination: A case series analysis to identify best practices. BMC Health Services Research, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08623-w 

Appendix A

Balanced Scorecard for the Department of Medicine at Mayo Clinic

NURS FPX 8010 Assessment 3 Strategic Plan Development

Appendix B

Crosswalk Table: Departmental and Organizational Alignment