Since it was discovered, the US has been a melting pot of cultures, traditions, and languages with organized communities of natives from various countries. Apart from that, the US struggles for high-quality services in different spheres of life, including healthcare. No one can deny that health is vital, especially when it comes to elderly people. However, nowadays, the young tend to work long hours and scarcely have enough time to look after their parents and grandparents. In such a situation, an assisted living facility comes in handy. Despite being a cultural and linguistic challenge, a project of such a facility for non-English-speaking elderly people who live in a community and are stick to their traditions is worth consideration.
Background, issues, main strategic objectives
Mid-Atlantic Nursing Center (MANC) is a successful assisted living and nursing service which provides home health care as well. It comprises three facilities and proves possible for further development. The opportunity is to enter a niche market with a pilot project of a healthcare organization aimed at supplying services to Vietnamese elderly people with unique needs. The project is to be initially financed by a Vietnamese American endorser.
The Vietnamese community in the area is numerous. Traditionally, family relations are close, and adult children tend to take care of their elderly relatives. Meanwhile, it happens to be difficult to combine workload and family responsibilities. Besides, not all families manage to have enough funds to pay a private nurse to assist. What is more, in Vietnamese culture a nursing home is considered as a place of abandonment. The objective is, therefore, to work out a project of a type of a reasonably-priced facility where Vietnamese elderly people with unique needs will be taken care of by specialists without feeling quitted.
SWOT analysis of external and internal environments
SWOT analysis is one of the methods in strategic planning. Since it does not contain any economic categories, it is possible to be applied to any enterprise including healthcare organizations. SWOT analysis involves a division of factors into four categories. They are opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses. The first two are external factors whereas the second two are internal factors (Ginter, 2013).
External environmental analysis
Opportunities are an external factor that contributes to the development. They are not able to be influenced. However, they can be used for the benefit (Foshnay & Kuziemsky, 2013).
In the case of MANC, it is possible to outline three major opportunities. The first one is the financial investment from outside, which means that the owner might implement a project and has the possibility to accomplish a fund-generating activity, which might contribute to the further development of the associated business. The second one is the construction of an innovative healthcare service in the area. The owner looks interested in this opportunity as she is keen on providing qualitative healthcare. Third, since it is a pilot project, no fierce competition in the segment is awaited, which ensures a monopolistic status of the facility. As a rule, monopolies tend to have fewer advantages than disadvantages. However, in this particular case, it can be considered as an advantage because the owner is a devoted person, and she is likely to ensure a high-quality service and reasonable pricing.
Threats are external factors that prevent an enterprise from development. These factors cannot be influenced but might be tackled. Thus, their impact might be reduced (Foshnay & Kuziemsky, 2013). In the case under consideration, there exists one major threat which is a possible lack of demand for the supplied services due to cultural and linguistic peculiarities of potential customers. However, it might be minimized by a knowledgeable client-orientation policy and efficient marketing strategy.
Internal environmental analysis
Strengths are internal resources such as financial security and personnel (Foshnay & Kuziemsky, 2013). As for the financial security, it is guaranteed by the investor. When it comes to the personnel, the owner strives for long-term employment. Thus, a careful selection of the staff is undertaken. The facility might create new workplaces for the community and employ Vietnamese-speaking nurses willing to take care of people of the same cultural background. To comply with high standards of service, the nurses will require special training, which is a plus to their professional improvement. Besides, the employer is rather alluring due to the successful presence in the market.
Weaknesses are drawbacks that might prevent the facility from development (Foshnay & Kuziemsky, 2013). The major weakness is the cultural issue. It is rather serious since it is a matter of tradition. Like other Asians, Vietnamese are conservatives, so they are unlikely to accept any violations to their customs (Omi & Winant, 2016). However, a wise attitude to clients might compensate for this weakness.
In conclusion, it is possible to admit the project is worth implementation. The strengths are likely to allow using the opportunities to full extend. As for the threats, they are subject to minimization by a thoughtful client-oriented policy. Weaknesses might prove to be critical since they involve the cultural issue. However, their influence might be lessened if the organization is not considered as an assisted living one. The hint might be to make it a part-time facility.
References
Foshnay, L., & Kuziemsky, C. (2013). Towards an implementation framework for business intelligence in healthcare. International Journal of Information Management, 34(1), 20-27.
Ginter, P. M. (2013). The strategic management of healthcare organisations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Omi, M., & Winant, H. (2016). Racial formation in the United States. New York, NY: Routledge.