Environmental Analysis of CoxHealth Organization Paper Example

CoxHealth is an integrated system of health care that is located in the southwest Missouri which serves a 22 country part which spans southern Missouri. The hospitals of CoxHealth are usually found in the Springfield, Branson, and Monett, Missouri. Being a worker of the Coxhealth Organization, I experience the problems associated with the declining of the reimbursements that are from the providers of insurance and raising the demands for the patient services because of significant changes in the external environment that are created by implementation of Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection. This paper will analyze the external and internal environmental factors affecting the organization, how the factors influence the competitive strategy of the organization and provide an approach which will assist the manager to implement the strategic plan of the organization.

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The first force of the external environment that affects the organization is the level of competition. While the competition is increasing, the Coxhealth organization is forced to become more strategically proactive; additionally, the more rivalry competition is, the higher the need of the healthcare organization to embrace innovation. For many years, CoxHealth has continued to become proactive in the section of the competition of healthcare systems. The organization has partnered with several locally owned hospitals with the aim of assisting in providing of healthcare that is of high quality to Southwest Missouri. For instance, Citizens Memorial Hospital and CoxHealth have come into an agreement that works together in opening up the possibility of having additional services to Texas County part. The second external environment force which directly influences the competitive approach utilized by CoxHealth is ACA marketplace. By 2016, there were many insurance organizations which withdrew from the markets. This significantly affected the competing healthcare institutions.

An organization's internal environment refers to a system, structures, people, conditions, and events that are inside the company which is under the control of the organization. The mission statement, organization culture as well as leadership style are among the factors that are related to the internal organization's environment. According to Ginter, Duncan, & Swayne, (2013), the internal environment forces will affect the activities of the organization and the behavior and decisions of workers. One internal factor that affects the CoxHealth organization is the diverse and quality specialty physicians. Since CoxHealth has different quality physicians, they provide quality services across its hospital centers. This internal factor impacts the healthcare future as it offers care to all the patients and enhances the life quality of the community surrounding Southwest Missouri. The other internal factor influencing CoxHealth organization is having leadership stability. Stability in leadership helps the healthcare organizations to continue with the activities aimed at enhancing prosperity in the sector which enables the organization in providing reassurance to the patients and employees.

To acquire a better understanding of the strategic plan of the CoxHealth Organization, it is vital to conduct a SWOT analysis. The internal factors that influence an organization make up the weaknesses and strengths constituents factors of SWOT analysis. On the other hand, the Threat and Opportunities comprise of the external factors affecting business. In 2015, CoxHealth carried out a SWOT analysis whereby it determined many strengths that are within the organization: support services by physicians and diverse and quality physician specialties. Being a market leader in many regions and having leadership stability is an essential part of the organization (Edwards, 2018). The SWOT analysis of the organization helped to evaluate the internal and external factors which affected the competitive strategy approach utilized by the organization.

The competitive strategy of an organization is usually derived from the taking of an organization's weaknesses and strengths as well as determining if every activity may be utilized as a competitive advantage. While assessing the Cox Health organization's external and internal forces to evaluate its impact on the organization's competitive approach, one requires looking at the significant competitors found within their region of operation and their results. The competitive strategy utilized by CoxHealth Organization is continuing with pursuing of other healthcare institutions which are in need of acquiring financial stability that CoxHealth may provide them. In the last four years, CoxHealth Organization has illustrated that they consider external factors that are within its environment and utilize that information as its opportunities to expand its business. Leadership stability remains the major internal factor which enables CoxHealth to continue with its operations in the competitive market.

Furthermore, the management of the organization has vested the roots within the CoxHealth Organization which has proven to be more successful in avoiding stretching of the organization in its mergers. It usually is imperative that the managers of the organization, as well as the leaders, maintain and implement the momentum of the organization's strategic plan to become profitable and successful when proving quality health care services. To attain this, it is critical that an organization acquire and utilize a wide range of resources that include ecological, social and economic capital. This will require corporate sustainability or the manner whereby organization resources are being used in establishing a competitive advantage that is endurable.

References

Edwards, Steve (2018). CoxHealth. Retrieved from: https://www.coxhealth.com/about-us/coxhealth-leadership/steven-d-edwards/

Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2013). Strategic management of health care organizations (7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.