Is the recession over and, if so, does it matter to the tens of millions of people who are still unemployed? Will health care reform be enacted and extend insurance coverage to millions of more people or will the ranks of the uninsured continue to climb?
Because the future is filled with questions, the AHA has developed its three-year Strategic Plan with an eye toward flexibility, even as the association addressees the issues that its Environmental Scan says will affect the hospital and health system field.
The AHA's 2010-2012 Strategic Plan offers an overview of the association's strategic and financial direction for the future, identifies the unique challenges facing the field and responds with goals, strategies and priorities to meet the needs of those on the front lines of care.
Essentially, the AHA Strategic Plan is a roadmap that charts a course for the association to achieve a better future in supporting hospitals and the people and communities they serve.
The plan is a "living document designed to reflect the issues hospital leaders are confronting and to set a course of action for their national association as we work to be the most effective and trusted advocate possible," says AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock.
The plan features two overarching goals: advancing a health care delivery system that improves health and health care; and "optimizing" the AHA's operational effectiveness.
Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence. A new component of the AHA's goal to improve health and health care is its Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence (HPOE) initiative, which is intended to move the field forward in areas like quality, safety and efficiency.
The HPOE initiative is at the "heart of our strategy to help hospitals in those areas and, as importantly, to demonstrate how hospitals are improving themselves," Umbdenstock says.
Health care reform. The other key change to the plan centers on prospects for health care reform and its potential impact on the field.
"We advocated hard for health care reform that was done right, and our strategy plan outlines how the AHA will lead the field in achieving its goals," Umbdenstock says. He adds that these additions to the plan will help the AHA be better advocates for hospitals as "we face, together, uncertain times that will be accompanied by certain change."
The AHA Strategic Plan is developed and constantly updated with the advice, counsel and input of staff, members and AHA governance committees.
Hospital members can find the AHA 2010-2012 Strategic Plan and the accompanying Strategy Map by going to the "About" section of www.aha.org and selecting "AHA Strategic Plan for 2010-2012." For more information or to comment on the strategic plan, contact Gene O'Dell, the AHA's vice president of strategic and business planning, at godell@aha.org.
