HCS 499 Week 3 SWOT Analysis Within Health Care Organizations Example

Strengths the Newcomers Cannot Buy and Threats the Hospice Cannot Ignore: An Evidence-Based SWOT Analysis for a Nonprofit Community Hospice

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

HCS/499: Health Care Strategy Capstone

Week 3 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The hospice, its data and its competitors are composites written for a model paper; industry findings come from the sources listed.

In Week 2, the hospice adopted a shorter mission focused on its three counties and a vision of early referrals and a workforce that chooses to stay. This paper analyzes the hospice's situation with a SWOT analysis, using data the planning committee assembled: five years of referral-source admissions, stay lengths, staff vacancy and turnover, the federal family caregiver survey, the finances of the 12-bed inpatient house, interviews with ten referral partners and a map of competitors.

Strengths

Community trust: in referral interviews, eight of ten partners named the hospice's reputation as the main reason they refer; the hospice has served the counties for 40 years. Quality: on the federal hospice family caregiver survey, the hospice's willingness-to-recommend score is above the state average. Volunteers: 300 active volunteers provide companionship, respite and bereavement support that paid staff alone could not. Inpatient house: the only hospice house in the three counties gives families an option when care at home becomes impossible. Philanthropy: an annual fund of about $900,000 supports charity care and bereavement programs.

Weaknesses

Workforce: nurse vacancies of 18% and aide turnover of 34% a year strain every team. Late referrals: median length of stay has fallen to 17 days, and a quarter of patients die within a week of admission, too soon to benefit fully. Inpatient house finances: it runs at 58% occupancy and loses about $600,000 a year. Marketing: the hospice has no dedicated liaison staff calling on physicians and relies on its reputation. Technology: its scheduling system cannot show real-time visit status to families or partners.

Opportunities

Growing demand: hospice use keeps climbing, with a majority of Medicare decedents enrolled in 2023 (Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, 2025). Palliative care: patients with serious illness who are not ready for hospice need symptom management and planning, and a community palliative program could reach them months earlier. Partnerships: the regional hospital system wants a partner to reduce readmissions of seriously ill patients. Workforce pipeline: the community college is expanding its nursing program and seeks clinical sites.

Threats

Competition: four for-profit hospices entered the counties in three years, part of a national surge in hospice providers (Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, 2025). Ownership trends: Braun et al. (2021) documented growing acquisitions of hospice agencies by private equity firms and publicly traded corporations from 2011 to 2019, bringing well-capitalized competitors with marketing budgets the hospice cannot match. Workforce: Kamal et al. (2017) warned of an impending shortage of palliative care specialists as demand grows faster than supply, and the same pressures affect hospice nurses and aides. Payment pressure: federal payment updates and scrutiny of hospice spending could tighten margins.

What the Referral Partners Said

The ten referral interviews added nuance the numbers could not. Hospital case managers valued the hospice's quality but said the newer agencies answered referral calls faster, often admitting patients the same day, while the hospice sometimes took two days because of staffing. Nursing home administrators praised the hospice's aides but said visits were less frequent than a year ago. Two physicians said they had not heard from the hospice in years, while competitors' liaisons visited monthly. The interviews confirmed that the hospice's reputation is real but that responsiveness, not reputation, decides many individual referrals.

Why These Weaknesses Matter Now

Each weakness is magnified by the new market. When the hospice was the only option, a two-day wait for admission cost it little; now the referral simply goes elsewhere. When staffing was adequate, the lack of a liaison did not matter; now competitors fill the gap. The analysis therefore treats workforce and responsiveness as linked problems rather than separate ones.

Pairing the Factors

A SWOT becomes useful when internal and external factors are paired. Using strengths to seize opportunities: the hospice's reputation and quality position it to launch community palliative care with the regional hospital system as a partner. Using strengths to counter threats: publishing its family survey results and volunteer services helps referral partners and families see differences from newer competitors. Fixing weaknesses to capture opportunities: becoming a clinical site for the nursing program could ease vacancies. Reducing weaknesses exposed to threats: the loss-making inpatient house is vulnerable if competitors take more patients; converting unused beds to respite or general inpatient care could raise occupancy.

Ranking the Options

The committee ranked options by fit with the mission, effect on the biggest weaknesses and cost. Workforce ranks first because every other strategy, from palliative care to faster admissions, depends on having nurses and aides to deliver it. Earlier referral through palliative care and hospital partnership ranks second, since it addresses late referrals and competition at once. Stabilizing the inpatient house, important but less urgent, ranks third. Options the committee set aside, such as expanding into a fourth county or launching a paid television campaign, scored poorly on cost and did little for the weaknesses that matter most.

The Three Strategic Priorities

Priority 1: Build and keep the workforce. Priority 2: Reach patients earlier through a community palliative care program and a partnership with the regional hospital system. Priority 3: Make the inpatient house sustainable. Each follows from the vision adopted in Week 2, which named early referral and a workforce that chooses to stay. Together they answer four of the five questions posed in Week 1.

Keeping the Analysis Current

Markets change. The committee will update the competitor map and workforce data every six months and revisit the SWOT at the annual plan review. Keckley (2015) urged boards to check their strategic plans regularly against changing conditions, and the hospice's board will add a SWOT review to its annual retreat.

Conclusion

The hospice's strengths are community trust, quality and volunteers that newcomers cannot quickly buy; its weaknesses are workforce, late referrals and a costly inpatient house; its environment offers growing demand and partnerships while bringing competition and shortages. Pairing these factors produced three priorities that the goals week will turn into measurable objectives.

References

Braun, R. T., Stevenson, D. G., & Unruh, M. A. (2021). Acquisitions of hospice agencies by private equity firms and publicly traded corporations. JAMA Internal Medicine, 181(8), 1113-1114. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.6262

Kamal, A. H., Bull, J. H., Swetz, K. M., Wolf, S. P., Shanafelt, T. D., & Myers, E. R. (2017). Future of the palliative care workforce: Preview to an impending crisis. The American Journal of Medicine, 130(2), 113-114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2016.08.046

Keckley, P. (2015). Strategic planning checkup. Trustee, 68(3), 23-24.

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