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Directional Strategies for Mayo Clinic

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Introduction

The focal point of this discourse is to discuss the directional strategy of the Mayo Clinic.

In the recent past, the Mayo Clinic has been constantly ranked in the United States News and

World Report rankings as one of the top-quality hospitals across the globe. It has registered

remarkable performance and positive outcomes in various specialties such as cardiology and

heart surgery, cancer, geriatrics, urology, pulmonology, and Neurology and neurosurgery among

others. Mayo Clinic is a non-profit healthcare organization that is devoted to education, clinical

practice, and research, thus dispensing whole-person care to every individual who seeks healing.

The hospital is composed of focused healthcare professionals who are committed to realizing the

set goals. The discourse will provide insights into the vision, mission, and core values and assess

the scope within which they align with the strategic goals of the healthcare organization.

Recommendations will also be proposed regarding how the proposed strategic plan can be

improved.

Effectiveness of the Organization’s Directional Strategies.

It is worth noting that the mission statement of a healthcare firm elucidates the reasons

why the hospital exists. The mission of the Mayo Clinic is to inspire hope in the patients and

contribute to their health and well-being via the provision of the best care via integrated clinical

practice, education, and research (Mayo Clinic Health System, 2023). The contemporary society

is marred by an increasing number of sick people who need medical intervention. Chronic

illnesses have been on the rise too with only a handful of healthcare facilities being able to

provide services such as chemotherapy, neurosurgeon services, and heart surgery among others.

The establishment of the Mayo Clinic continues to bridge the existing gaps in healthcare

including conducting research on the upcoming endemics and epidemics, educating the public on
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how to prevent them, and raising an incredible generation of healthcare professionals to help in

helping the patients recover their health and well-being.

The vision of the Mayo Clinic is to offer an unmatched experience as the most trusted

partner for healthcare (Mayo Clinic Health System, 2023). Well, the facility has managed to

provide effective therapy to their patients most of whom recommend the facility for getting the

right diagnosis in a timely manner. The presence of healthcare specialists who have a robust

history in identifying and treating tough medical issues that are not even diagnosed elsewhere

makes the realization of this vision possible. The hospital also treats the patient as an expert

when it comes to diagnosis and treatment (Mayo Clinic Health System, 2023). He or she is an

invaluable part of the healthcare team because without sharing the information about his or her

story and precisely answering the question, the entire treatment process cannot be a success. The

provision of holistic care promotes the realization of the vision that matches the strategic goals of

the healthcare organization – there is an increased reliance on the consumption of healthcare

information from Mayo Clinic with many scholars using the site for research purposes.

The value statement is that ‘the needs of the patient come first’ (Mayo Clinic Health

System, 2023). A business journal published by Wharton in 2018 indicated that the notion of

patient come first has set apart Mayo Clinic from many other healthcare firms (Wharton, 2023).

Despite the fact that other medical centers claim the same thing, the facility is actually structured

in such a way that it supports this value statement as a goal. Additionally, the healthcare system

is designed to promote teamwork and not hierarchy. The facility has established a good

reputation as a result of incredible collegiality among the healthcare professionals. This has made

it easier for them to attend to the patients easily and rapidly resolve any arising problem.

Gaps Between Effective Directional Strategies and Existing Organizational Strategies

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For any company to efficaciously thrive in the marketplace and grab a higher proportion

of market share, it must have a clearly defined vision, mission, and value statement – these three

aspects act as a blueprint that guides the actions and helps in the elucidation of the organization’s

existence. Omelyanenko and co-researchers (2020) argue that a mission statement is supposed to

be concise and memorable to improve employee retention. It delineates the ‘who, what, and

why’ of the healthcare organizations and acts as a guideline for all the operations conducted. The

mission statement for the Mayo Clinic which is ‘to inspire hope and contribute to health and

well-being by providing the best care to every patient through integrated clinical practice,

education, and research’ has all these important aspects. The value statement supports this

mission in the sense that it focuses on the needs of the patients above everything else. Without

timely delivery of the necessary treatment, it is nearly impossible to attain positive outcomes and

patient satisfaction. The mission of the hospitals helps in the accomplishment of the vision which

is to provide unmatched healthcare experience and be the most trusted partner in the healthcare

sector. There is no doubt that the Mayo Clinic is one of the leading hospitals in the world and

one of its kind in terms of education and research.

On the other hand, the vision of a company describes the desired future of that

organization – that is, what it intends to achieve in the long run. According to Haski-Leventhal

(2020), such a vision should be based on facts and not opinions; and it should be ambitious,

inspiring, and having dependable and precise indicators. Fuertes et al (2021) add more insights

into this by arguing that the vision motivates the workforce since it provides direction and reason

to work. It tends to delineate the aim of the healthcare organization when it comes to attaining a

healthier future without outlining the plans. There is no doubt that the Mayo Clinic has fostered

directional strategies for propelling the activities of the hospital. The reason for this is that the
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mission statement is a reflection of the identity of the organization and suits it well. Research

indicates that the values of the company are also instrumental in the promotion of strategic plans.

Some of the key values manifested in Mayo Clinic such as innovation and utilization of the latest

technology are the driving force towards achieving better patient outcomes

How Organizational Directional Strategies Align with the Strategic Plan

According to Miller (2023), strategic plans are directional, discrete, and distinguished and

are supposed to support the vision, mission, and values of the organization. Any form of

incongruity would cause stagnation and cripple the performance of the healthcare organization.

There are four key strategic goals of an organization: enhancing community engagement,

changing organizational leadership, enhancing patient satisfaction scores, as well as changing

organizational technology. Innovation which is a key element of the organizational values

supports and complements the implementation of technology. Nevertheless, the value of

managing and monitoring how a healthcare firm performs has to be represented in the strategic

plans as well as the vision and might have to be properly supported in the strategic plan. It is

imperative that the vision of a company be reliable, factual, and objective. For instance, the

objective of a healthcare firm such as the Mayo Clinic is to warrant support of the strategic plan

by the set-out mission to ensure enhancement of patient outcomes, dispensation of healthcare

services, and patient satisfaction. The second organizational strategy is to promote the health and

well-being of the patient and build on the existing reputation of the facility via care quality

assessment and improved service delivery. It is undeniable that this is the most achievable and

relevant strategy since it is entrenched in the directional strategy of the Mayo Clinic.

Proposed Changes to The Organizational Structure and Strategic Goals

A healthcare organization’s vision statement is supposed to be measurable, attainable,

and articulable based on the strategic plans of the organization. As a matter of fact, it is basically
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a verb and then followed by a future positive proclamation. Hence, according to Fuertes et al

(2020), the vision statement needs to be measurable and objective and thus needs time inclusion.

In spite of the fact that the vision statement has been incredible, favoring the establishment of the

reputation of the healthcare organization, improving it will make it unidirectional. As such, it

should be able to assess the performance with time and associate time with the value statement.

Objectivity and timing have been deemed imperative to the strategic planning and success of the

organization – hence the vision can be adjusted.

Conclusion

To sum up, the healthcare industry has in the past decades experienced dynamic changes

that are not evitable to the healthcare centers. They are therefore supposed to be proactive for

them to continue thriving in the healthcare sector. To that need, healthcare requirements and

patients’ needs have to change too. A change in the Mayo Clinic’s vision statement could favor

the provision of healthcare services much better and therefore was proposed. The facility has

already established future goals and the vision statement must align with such objectives
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References

Fuertes, G., Alfaro, M., Vargas, M., Gutierrez, S., Ternero, R., & Sabattin, J. (2020). The

conceptual framework for the strategic management: a literature review—

descriptive. Journal of Engineering, 2020, 1-21

Haski-Leventhal, D. (2020). On purpose, impact, vision, and mission. In The Purpose-Driven

University (pp. 7-22). Emerald Publishing Limited

Miller, S, P. (2023). Directional Strategies in the Development of Strategy for a Healthcare

Organization. Chron.com. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/directional-

strategies-development-strategy-healthcare-organization-81073.html

Omelyanenko, V., Khasanov, B., Kolomiyets, G., Melentsova, O., & Pominova, I. (2020).

Strategic decisions in the system of management of innovation activity of

enterprises. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 19(6), 1-7

Wharton. (2023). How the Mayo Clinic Built Its Reputation as a Top Hospital. Wharton –

University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved from

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/mayo-clinics-secret-success/