When you are assigned a task, what do you do first? Do you think about evaluating and planning what to do or do you just jump right in and get to work? Many of us don’t have much time to plan, or at least we don’t think we do. Some healthcare professionals find planning boring and prefer to just get started without a second thought. Strategic planning is preparing for the future. It is deliberate, purposeful, and thoughtful. Some individuals do not realize how vital planning is to their own success or to that of their organization. It is vital to plan because it allows you to outline measurable goals, provide direction, evaluate progress, and assist you in decision making.

In this Discussion, you will select a healthcare organization and examine its performance, analyzing how strategic planning and marketing may affect and improve that organization.

To prepare:

Review this week’s Learning Resources, especially Jennifer Wilkerson’s discussion from this course’s Interactive Media.

Analyze the Hospital Competitor Performance document that provides further information (sample indicators of performance) in reference to Waldenville profiles and choose one of the healthcare organizations from this document as the focus of your work in this Discussion. Read about one of the Waldenville healthcare organizations.

• Identify the healthcare organization you have chosen. You may decide to choose one of the healthcare organizations located in this weeks optional resources or you may select one you have learned about through your research.
• Identify and explain which two measures of organizational performance you would recommend for the healthcare organization you have selected? Explain why.
• Explain how the two measures of organizational performance you selected advance the operational improvement of strategic planning and marketing for the healthcare organization you have chosen.

Support your work with specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and/or additional scholarly sources as appropriate. Your citations must be in APA format. Refer to the Essential Guide to APA Style for Walden Students to ensure your in-text citations and reference list are correct.