To Dr. Clover (2nd Response Needed For Unit 2)

New Community Cardiology Care, which is a large, physician cardiology practice located in New Community, CA. In order to remain fiscally responsible with a high level of quality care, a SWOT analysis is a great tool to evaluate how the practice is doing overall and look for areas of improvement. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (Woratanarat, & Woratanarat, 2012). It will be important to look at characteristics and see where they may fit into the categories.

When discussing strengths for the practice, one might include the fact that the practice is established and has a base consumer practice. Also, the practice has experienced doctors, and an office space with equipment that is already paid for, which includes; EKG machines, x-ray technology, and an established electronic healthcare record system already in place. Weaknesses include; the need for an updated marketing plan, need for new technology to possible include tele health capabilities and mobile app scheduling, and retention of staff issues due to low salaries for ancillary staff.

Opportunities to enhance the physician cardiology practice could look at; assessing the auditing process for the coding department looking for lost or uncollected revenues, and providing updated education for staff to utilize new techniques and practices. Also, possibly assessing for changes to the community’s consumer population to look for new avenues for marketing and revenue streams, and assessing the practice to see if there is a need to acquire new staff or physicians so that the practice can grow into a new market. Threats to this practice would include; another physician cardiology practice to open in the same area, any lawsuits or derogatory reviews about the practice’s reputation, and changes to reimbursement rates (Schmidt, 2017).

When analyzing the results of the SWOT analysis, it is important to understand that some of the issues for each category could also potentially fit into another category depending on what projects come from this analysis. This snapshot gives an overview, and can be adjusted to meet any projects specific needs. Overall, this SWOT analysis shows that the practice is profitable with steady revenues, but could weather some storms as the future market changes. It will be important for the practice to adjust its marketing budget to a more modern approach such as utilizing mobile apps and tele health technologies, as well as looking at avenues for growth through new technology and possible bringing on a new physician to the practice that may have a specific specialty that could be used for new marketing and consumer attraction (Resch, & Tena, 2013).

References:

Resch, P. M., & Tena, M. (2013). Mobile marketing: Applications and implications for physicians in private practice. American Journal of Health

          Sciences, 4(1), 31-44. 

Schmidt, M. (2017). Physician office labs leverage information systems to prepare for more fee schedule cuts. MLO: Medical Laboratory

          Observer, 49(2), 32-33.

Woratanarat, T., & Woratanarat, P. (2012). Assessment of prospective physician characteristics by SWOT analysis. Malaysian Journal of Medical

          Sciences, 19(1), 60-64.

This Must Be Substantive To The Above Post. No Plagiarism.