LSM 412 Week 1 Planning in the Lifespan Industry Example

A Fourth Center or Evening Hours? Planning at a Nonprofit Adult Day Organization, From Mission and Data to Goals, Options and a One-Year Operating Plan

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

LSM/412: Management within the Lifespan Industry

Week 1 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The organization, its centers and its figures are composites written for a model paper; research findings and national data come from the sources listed.

A composite nonprofit organization runs three adult day centers serving about 180 older adults a day, most living with dementia or after a stroke, and an in-home respite service that sends trained aides to families. At its spring meeting, the board faced a choice. The waiting list had reached 64 families, and two members urged opening a fourth center in a growing suburb. The executive director was not sure a new building was the answer. This paper follows the planning process that settled the question.

Planning as a Management Function

Planning is the first of the four management functions, followed by organizing, leading and controlling. It means deciding what an organization will achieve and how. Strategic planning sets direction for several years; operational planning turns that direction into this year's actions, budgets and schedules. Formal planning can turn into a ritual of documents unless it supports real thinking about choices (Mintzberg, 1994), so the director framed the process around one decision.

Starting From the Mission

The organization's mission is to support families so that older adults can live safely at home as long as they wish. It was written 30 years ago by a group of caregivers who had nowhere to turn, and board members still quote it when priorities are debated. The mission reframed the question: not how to grow, but how to help the most families keep their relative at home.

Gathering Data

Staff reviewed the waiting list. Of the 64 families, 38 lived within 15 minutes of an existing center, and 41 said the center's closing time of 4:30 p.m. did not fit their work schedules. Attendance data showed centers at 94% of licensed capacity from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. but only 60% before 8 a.m. and after 3 p.m. Opening a new center would cost about $1.2 million in renovation and $900,000 a year to operate. Extending hours at the three centers to 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. would cost about $310,000 a year in added staff.

What the Research Says

A daily-diary study followed family caregivers of people with dementia and found that on days their relative attended adult day services, caregivers' exposure to stressors and their stress appraisals fell compared with other days, mostly because of time away from caregiving, with some improvement in evening behavior and sleep (Zarit et al., 2011). The finding suggested that longer days, covering a full workday, might help families as much as more locations. A center that closes before a family's workday ends solves only part of the problem it was built for.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

Adult day centers are a small part of the long-term care field nationally, well behind residential care communities and nursing homes in number (Lendon et al., 2024), which is one reason many families do not know they exist. Strengths: experienced staff, strong reputation with the Area Agency on Aging and a respite service that already reaches families at home. Weaknesses: aging vans, a tight labor market for aides and no evening transportation contract. Opportunities: a state Medicaid waiver that pays for adult day services, growing demand from working caregivers and a new hospital partnership. Threats: rising wages, competition from a for-profit center opening nearby and uncertain state waiver rates.

Goals

The planning committee set three goals for the coming year: reduce the waiting list to under 25 families, serve at least 30 families whose work schedules had prevented enrollment and keep the organization's operating margin at or above 1%.

Comparing the Options

A fourth center would add about 50 places but take 18 months to open and use most of the organization's reserves. Extended hours could open within four months, serve the 41 families whose schedules did not fit and use existing buildings. Staffing was the main risk for both; extended hours needed eight part-time aides, while a new center needed 14 staff.

The Decision

The board chose extended hours for year one and approved a feasibility study for a fourth center in year three, when reserves would be rebuilt and the effect of longer hours on the waiting list would be known.

The Operating Plan

The program director owns the rollout. Month one: survey families on preferred hours and notify the state licensing office. Months one and two: recruit eight part-time aides and two transportation drivers. Month three: train new staff and adjust meal and medication schedules. Month four: open extended hours at the largest center; months five and six: the other two centers. Budget: $310,000 a year, funded by added attendance fees, Medicaid waiver payments and a two-year foundation grant.

Involving Staff and Families

The plan was not written in the executive office. Center directors reviewed the attendance data and pointed out that the first hour of the day required extra help with toileting and breakfast, which changed the staffing estimate. A family advisory group of eight caregivers tested the proposed hours and asked that the late pickup window be flexible by 15 minutes, since traffic made exact times impossible. Two aides volunteered to pilot a split shift. Involving the people who would carry out the plan improved its accuracy and made them its advocates when the board met again.

Monitoring the Plan

Each month the leadership team will review the waiting list, early and late attendance, staff vacancies and budget variance. If late attendance stays under 50% of planned places after three months, hours at that center will be adjusted.

Conclusion

Planning began with a board question and ended with a different answer than some expected. Returning to the mission, gathering data on need and capacity and using research on how adult day services help caregivers showed that extended hours would help more families sooner and at lower cost than a new building. Measurable goals, an operating plan with owners and dates and a monitoring plan give the decision a path to results.

References

Lendon, J. P., Caffrey, C., Melekin, A., Singh, P., Lu, Z., & Sengupta, M. (2024). Overview of post-acute and long-term care providers and services users in the United States, 2020 (National Health Statistics Reports No. 208). National Center for Health Statistics. https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc/158328

Mintzberg, H. (1994). The fall and rise of strategic planning. Harvard Business Review, 72(1), 107-114.

Zarit, S. H., Kim, K., Femia, E. E., Almeida, D. M., Savla, J., & Molenaar, P. C. M. (2011). Effects of adult day care on daily stress of caregivers: A within-person approach. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 66B(5), 538-546. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbr030