Instead, they made a conscious decision to pursue excellence in reliability, quality, and value (sound familiar?), then followed through beautifully.
Strategy at Home
Despite differences in industry and scale, all of these same sorts of decisions are critical to the success of your career, your HM group, or even the field of pediatric HM. Are you aware of the specific strategies in place for your group’s success? Have you been involved in the process? Before this year, I was probably like most of you. I had some vague notion of success. It involved increasing relative value units, making everyone happy, and completing a big QI or research project.
In the past 12 months, however, I have taken part in three strategic planning sessions: one for a regional pediatric society, one for my hospital, and one for my hospitalist group. The importance of these processes crystallized for me. Apparently, the leaders in our field have had the same thoughts. They convened the Pediatric Hospital Medicine Roundtable, a strategic planning session for our field (see “All Grown Up,” p. 1). Clearly, 2009 is the year of the strategic plan.
Despite the unifying theme, the processes and products of all of these plans have been unique. Strategic plans must be developed organically, out of local context and environment, and can only be created by those who live and breathe the work. What works for group safety at the university hospital of quality focus might not work for group communication experts at suburban community hospitals. Differences in institutional, organizational, and cultural beliefs should affect the decision-making process. When a strategy has been devised, it should be carefully chosen and explicitly implemented.
Does your group’s strategy come to mind? Or are you just treading water, unable to see beyond the next looming wave? If you have a vision of what you want, whether it’s money, fame, or protected time, then this same line of reasoning should apply to the strategic plan for your individual career, as well as the future of pediatric HM.
The lesson here is simple: Success requires a plan. Strategic planning is how you set a vision for the future and chart that course. Unexpected political waves are sure to come, and not every victory will come with a prize catch. But if you can create that beautiful Impressionist painting on the horizon and maintain that course, you are less likely to lose your breakfast and go without lunch. TH
Dr. Shen is The Hospitalist’s pediatric editor.