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Chapter 2 UNDERSTANDING AND ANALYZING THE GENERAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE HEALTH CARE ENVIRONMENT
Chapter 2 UNDERSTANDING AND ANALYZING THE GENERAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE HEALTH CARE ENVIRONMENT
Chapter 2 UNDERSTANDING AND ANALYZING THE GENERAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE HEALTH CARE ENVIRONMENT
COURSE INSTRUCTOR
Dr. ASIMA FAISAL
Learning Objectives
• Appreciate the significance of the external
environment’s impact on health care organizations.
• Understand and discuss the specific goals of
environmental analysis.
• Identify the process steps of environmental analysis.
• Identify key sources of environmental information.
• Discuss important techniques used in analyzing the
general and health care environments.
Efficiency VS Efficacy
• Legislative/political
• Economic
• Social/demographic
• Technological
GOALS OF ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
The specific goals of environmental analysis are:
• to identify and analyze current important issues and changes that will
• to detect and analyze the weak signals of emerging issues and changes that
LEGISLATIVE SHIFT
•An aging population and increased average life span will place capacity burdens on some health
care organizations while a lessening of demand threatens the survival of others. By 2020, the US
population over the age of 65 is expected to reach 53.7 million.
•The Hispanic population, many of whom do not speak English or speak it poorly, will continue to
grow. Hispanics could become the largest minority child population as early as 2010. By 2050, one
out of four Americans will be Hispanic.
•A more ethnically diverse and better-educated population will develop.
•An increase in income disparity is expected – a critical factor in determining health care delivery.
•“Tiered” access to health care is anticipated, with the division between the tiers becoming more
extreme.
•There are predictions of critical shortages of non physician health care professionals and primary
care physicians, yet a surplus of physicians within some specialties and in some geographic regions.
TECHNOLOGICAL SHIFT
1. Does the external environment influence capital allocation and decision making
processes?
2. Have previous strategic plans been scrapped because of unexpected changes in the
environment?
6. Do more and different kinds of external forces seem to be influencing decisions, and