Community Pulse: Strategic Analysis for Health Programs

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Welcome to the community health management design podcast. I'm your host, doctor Tami Moser . And today, we're driving into crucial tools for strategic planning, the SWOT analysis, Porter's 5 Forces, and PESLEY analysis. Stick around to learn how these powerful techniques can shape your community health management program. Whether you're launching a new health initiative or revamping an existing one, a SWOT analysis can be your secret weapon. But what exactly is a SWOT, and how can it revolutionize your community health program? Well, let's break it down. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It's a strategic planning technique that helps you identify and understand key factors affecting your program.

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But here's the kicker. It's not just about listing these factors. It's about using this information to make informed decisions and create a robust strategy. Let's start with strengths. These are internal positive attributes and resources. Think about what your organization does well. Maybe you have a stellar team of community health workers or perhaps you got strong relationships with local healthcare For example, let's say you're running a diabetes prevention program. A strength might be your organization's track record in successful weight management initiatives.

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That's something you can leverage. Now let's talk about weaknesses. These are internal factors that may hinder your success. It's crucial to be honest here. Maybe you're understaffed or your technology is outdated. Identifying these weaknesses isn't about beating yourself up. It's about recognizing areas for improvement and identifying areas that you may not be able to move forward with in terms of opportunities because your weaknesses mean you do not have the internal capability to do or take advantage of that opportunity. Opportunities are external factors your program could capitalize on.

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So this might be new funding sources, changes in health policy or emerging technologies. For our diabetes prevention program, an opportunity might be a new state initiative promoting healthy eating. Finally, we have threats. These are external factors that could jeopardize your program success. It could be competition from other programs, budget cuts, or changes in the community's demographics. While none of the examples I've provided are all encompassing, they do give you an insight into the types of things that go in each category. So now to really understand these external factors, we need to dig deeper. This is where Porter's 5 external factors, we need to dig deeper.

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This is where Porter's 5 Forces and Pestly analysis come into play. Let's start with Porter's 5 Forces. This model helps you analyze the competitive environment of your program. The 5 forces are threat of new entrants, how easy is it for new health programs to enter your space. Now this can highlight for you the challenges you'll face in entering the space or the challenges that you'll face once you successfully enter and must compete against other interns. Bargaining power of suppliers. This is the second, and you ask questions like how much control do your suppliers have, like equipment providers or partner organizations. Bargaining power of buyers mean, in our case, that perhaps patients or funding bodies could be powerful and impact what we can and cannot do, or we may have higher levels of power, buyers have less, in which case there is more control in terms of buying, and controlling this particular area of the marketplace by you rather than the buyer.

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So you're really looking at all of these. We've gone through 3. There's 2 more to look at, but you're looking at all of these on a continuum. Right? From 0 power to a 100% power or 0 threat to a 100% of a threat. Then we have threat of substitute products or services. So are there alternative solutions to the health issues you're addressing? And this is also really important to think of in terms of how easy is it for someone to substitute a product or service. So if it will cost me or I'm penalized, right, for switching, then that threat of substitute products or services is lessened. So in other words, me as a consumer, let's say of a service, I'm gonna pay a penalty of $100 if I choose to switch.

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However, there may be no penalty, which means it's very easy to switch. I can just drop yours and pick up something else to help me with this area as I move forward. So threat of substitute products or services aren't just about if they're available. It's how easy is it for a consumer to actually switch. And then rivalry among existing competitors. So how intense is the competition among current health programs in the space you're looking at? Are there so many that it becomes crowded and it's difficult with all the noise to really determine a good fit for a patient? Will a patient be overwhelmed if they're looking because there's so many existing competitors that a rivalry amongst them that might be very competitive would be things like they drop their price is so low or offer special deals to compete even when those damage their ability to fund their program appropriately. Let's say, for example, in our diabetes prevention program, we might find that the threat of new entrance is high due to increasing awareness of diabetes. The bargaining power of buyers, meaning patients, might be moderate as they have choices but also need reliable care.

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Understanding these forces helps us position our program more effectively. Now let's talk about PESTLE analysis. This tool helps us understand the macro environmental factors that could impact our program. PESTLE stands for political. Think health care policies or local government initiatives. Economic. This can include funding availability or the economic status of your target population. Social.

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Considered demographic trends or cultural attitudes toward health. Technological new health technologies or digital health platforms would fall into this category. So for instance, the continued advancement of wearables within the health space. Legal, health care regulations or data protection laws like HIPAA are examples. And then environmental. This might include factors like local local pollution levels or climate change impacts on health. Let's look at our diabetes prevention program again. Our PESTLE analysis might reveal opportunities like new government funding for preventative care, which would be political, challenges like an economic downturn affecting people's ability to buy healthy food, economic, or the need to adapt to increasing use of health apps, technological.

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Now here's where many people go wrong with these analyses. They treat them like simple list making exercises. But to truly harness their power, you need to approach them with objectivity and rely on data driven analysis. Once you've completed your initial SWOT analysis, take it a step further. Use Porter 5 forces to analyze your competitive environment and conduct a pestle and Porter's 5 Forces, you can take all the information that you've gathered and place them into the opportunities and threats column because that is what you learn from these analysis methods. Right? They help you populate the external component of your environmental, outlook for opportunities and threats with your particular program design. Now the internal information, you must gather from your internal resources. Pardon.

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That could be things like your, surveys that are put out by your organization to check, the health. Sorry. My standard poodles have decided to take some interest in our discussion. Remember in community health management, understanding your strategic position is just as important as understanding the health issues you're addressing. Keep analyzing, keep strategizing, and keep striving to make a difference in your community's health. Until next time, this is doctor Tami Moser .