Hospital strategic planning prerequisties

Strategic planning is an appropriate strategy for improving hospitals’ performance and increasing managers’ responsiveness and accountability. Iranian hospitals were requested to have mandatory strategic plans due to the accreditation requrements since 2012. As a result, they faced several challenges in formulating and implementing strategic plans. Hence, this study aimed to identify the perquisites of hospital strategic planning.

This qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 47 managers of teaching, private, military, social security and charity hospitals in 2016. Hospitals were selected purposefully from Tehran province hospitals. Content thematic analysis was used for data analysis using inductive approach.  

Justifying the need for strategic planning, using an appropriate strategic planning model, training hospital managers and employees on strategic planning process, providing necessary resources, promoting a collaborative and innovative culture, providing incentives for formulating and implementing strategic plans and managers’ and employees’ commitment and involvement are the main prerequisites of strategic planning in hospitals.

Hospitals managers must commit the strategic planning prerequisites prior to formulating and implementing strategic plans. Otherwise, they will encounter several serious challenges.