| Course | HCS 499 Health Care Strategy Capstone (HCS/499) |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Mission and vision analysis |
| Length | about 1,003 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Health Administration |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for HCS 499 Week 2
Keeping the Founders' Promise in a Crowded Market: Evaluating and Rewriting a Community Hospice's Mission, Vision and Values
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
HCS/499: Health Care Strategy Capstone
Week 2 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The hospice and its statements are composites written for a model paper; research findings come from the sources listed.
In Week 1, the capstone introduced a 40-year-old nonprofit community hospice facing new competitors, staff shortages and later referrals. Before choosing strategies, the planning committee revisits the statements that define the hospice's purpose. This paper evaluates the hospice's current mission, rewrites it, drafts a vision and values and explains how the statements will guide the strategic plan.
The Current Mission
The current mission, adopted in 1998, reads in part: "The hospice is dedicated to providing compassionate, comprehensive, holistic, interdisciplinary, high-quality end-of-life care to terminally ill patients and their families in the communities we serve, through a caring team of professionals and volunteers who honor the dignity of each individual, respect diversity, support the grieving, educate the community and collaborate with partners." It continues for several more sentences and totals 180 words. Few staff can recall it.
Mission, Vision and Values
A mission statement says why an organization exists, whom it serves and what it does. A vision describes the future the organization is working toward. Values state the principles that govern how people in the organization behave and decide (Ginter et al., 2018). Each has a different job: the mission keeps the organization anchored, the vision sets direction and the values guide daily choices.
Evaluating the Current Mission
Five criteria guide the evaluation. Clarity: the statement is accurate but crowded with adjectives, and its main idea is lost. Distinctiveness: almost any hospice could use it word for word; nothing identifies this hospice's community roots or its nonprofit character. Stakeholder focus: it names patients and families but not the rural communities the founders set out to serve. Guidance for decisions: it offers little help with the Week 1 questions, such as whether to serve seriously ill people before they qualify for hospice, because it limits the hospice to "end-of-life care." Brevity: at 180 words, it is too long to use.
What Research Suggests
Bart and Tabone (1998), studying mission statements in not-for-profit health care organizations, examined why organizations write them and whether they make a difference. Their work suggested that the benefits of a mission depend on alignment: whether an organization's structure, policies and everyday behavior are organized around what the statement says. For the hospice, the implication is that a better sentence will change nothing unless it is used to hire, to decide and to report; the rewrite is only the first half of the task.
What Staff and Families Said
Before drafting, the committee asked. A short survey of 140 staff and volunteers found that fewer than one in ten could state the mission in their own words, but nearly all described the hospice's purpose the same way: helping people stay at home and helping families through it. Six bereaved family members, interviewed by the family representative on the committee, said what they valued most was that someone answered the phone at night and that the nurse knew their town. Those answers shaped the revision more than any template: the hospice's real mission was already clear to the people doing the work, and the statement needed to catch up.
The Revised Mission
Proposed mission: "We care for people in our three counties facing serious illness and the end of life, at home and in our hospice house, so they and their families live their final chapters with comfort, dignity and support."
The revision is 37 words long. It names the community, broadens the scope from "terminally ill" to "serious illness," which opens the door to palliative care, names both settings the hospice uses and states the outcome for patients and families.
The Vision for 2030
Proposed vision: "By 2030, every person in our counties who could benefit from hospice or palliative care is referred early enough to receive the full support we offer, and our team is the place nurses and aides choose to build their careers."
The vision speaks directly to the two biggest threats from Week 1: late referrals and workforce shortages.
Values
Five values are proposed, each with a behavior attached. Presence: we show up when families need us, including nights and weekends. Honesty: we tell patients, families and partners the truth, including about our own quality. Community: we answer first to the people of our counties, not to investors. Respect for the team: we protect the time and safety of our staff and volunteers. Stewardship: we use donated and public money carefully and report how we use it.
Comparing With Competitors
With hospice providers multiplying nationally (Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, 2025), distinctiveness matters more each year. One new competitor's mission promises "industry-leading hospice solutions." Another emphasizes rapid admissions. The revised mission sets the hospice apart through its community ties and nonprofit accountability, which matter to many families and referral partners.
Testing the Revision on Real Decisions
A mission earns its place by helping with hard choices, so the committee tested the draft on the Week 1 questions. Should the hospice start palliative care? The revised mission's "serious illness" says yes, if it can be done well. Should it close the hospice house? The mission names the house as a setting of care, so closing it would require changing the mission openly rather than drifting away from it. Should it match a competitor's paid marketing to physicians? The value of honesty suggests competing on published quality instead. Each test gave a clearer answer than the old statement could.
Using the Statements
The statements will be used in five ways: printed on every job posting and discussed in interviews; used to screen proposed programs, with each proposal required to explain how it serves the mission; built into the quarterly board dashboard; used in orientation; and reviewed every three years.
Conclusion
The hospice's old mission captured its compassion but not its community, scope or direction. A shorter mission, a vision aimed at its main threats and values tied to behavior give the strategic plan a clear foundation, provided the hospice lives by them.
References
Bart, C. K., & Tabone, J. C. (1998). Mission statement rationales and organizational alignment in the not-for-profit health care sector. Health Care Management Review, 23(4), 54-69. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004010-199810000-00005
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations (8th ed.). Wiley.
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. (2025). Report to the Congress: Medicare payment policy, Chapter 9: Hospice services. https://www.medpac.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Mar25_Ch9_MedPAC_Report_To_Congress_SEC.pdf
What the HCS 499 Week 2 instructions ask
HCS 499 Week 2 usually asks students to analyze and, in many sections, revise the mission and vision of the organization chosen for the capstone. Prompts commonly ask students to explain the purpose of mission, vision and values statements, evaluate the organization's current statements against recognized criteria, propose improvements and explain how the statements will guide strategy. Some sections ask students to compare the organization's statements with a competitor's. Most instructors set two or three pages supported by scholarly work. Strong papers quote the actual statements, apply clear criteria, show the reasoning behind each change and link the revised statements to the strategic questions identified in Week 1, so the capstone reads as one plan.
How this HCS 499 Week 2 example is built
The paper opens by quoting the hospice's current mission, a long paragraph written in 1998, and states why the board wants to revisit it. It defines mission, vision and values and their different jobs. An evaluation section applies five criteria, clarity, distinctiveness, stakeholder focus, guidance for decisions and brevity, to the current statement, noting where it succeeds and where it has drifted from practice. Research by Bart and Tabone on mission statements in not-for-profit health care supports the point that alignment between statement and behavior matters more than wording. The revised mission, a vision for 2030 and five values follow, each explained. A final section shows how the statements will be used in decisions, hiring and reporting.
HCS 499 Week 2 grading rubric: where the points go
For mission and vision papers, faculty usually reward accurate definitions, careful evaluation against explicit criteria and revisions that are clearly better and clearly explained. Linking the statements to the organization's strategic situation earns substantial credit, especially in a cumulative capstone. Use of scholarly sources on the purpose and effects of mission statements adds points. Organization matters because the paper moves from evaluation to revision; headings for each step help. Writing quality counts heavily here, since the student is drafting statements meant to be read by the public. Correct citation completes the score. Papers that rewrite statements with more buzzwords, or that evaluate without criteria, tend to score lower.
HCS 499 Week 2 help: mistakes to avoid
Students often lose points in HCS 499 Week 2 by praising the current mission without evaluating it, or by rewriting it into a longer list of aspirations. Use criteria and apply each one. Keep missions short and concrete: who the organization serves, what it does and why it matters. Keep the vision a picture of a future state, not a restatement of the mission. Avoid buzzwords that could describe any organization. Explain how each change responds to the organization's situation from Week 1. Include values only if they will guide real decisions. Finally, show how the statements will be used, since a mission that never shapes a decision is decoration, and graders look for that connection in a capstone.
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HCS 499 Week 2 questions, answered
What does HCS/499 Week 2 usually ask for?
Many sections ask students to analyze and often revise the mission and vision of the organization chosen for the capstone, explaining how the statements guide strategy.
Where can I find a free HCS 499 Week 2 sample paper?
This page carries the complete HCS 499 Week 2 mission and vision paper for a community hospice, free with margin notes. If your capstone organization is different, ask the desk for a first custom paper at no cost.
What is the difference between a mission and a vision?
A mission states why an organization exists, whom it serves and what it does now; a vision describes the future the organization is working to create.
How long should a mission statement be?
There is no fixed rule, but short statements of one or two sentences are easier to remember and to use in decisions than long paragraphs.
Do mission statements make a difference?
Research on not-for-profit health care organizations suggests their value depends on alignment: statements matter when structures, policies and behavior are organized around them.
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