Strategic planning for clinical services: the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute.
A formal, hospitalwide strategic-planning process provides structure for the pharmacy's plans for implementing clinical services. The state-supported clinical cancer and research center began a formal strategic-planning process in 1981. The institution's planning report, prepared every two years and covering three two-year periods, drives the institution's budget through the state's biennial budget process. The report focuses on each department's responsibilities, areas of service, and relationship to the mission of the institution. Through the long-range planning process, upper-level administrators learned that pharmacy was eager not only to provide high-volume drug distribution services but also to assume direct patient-care and research responsibilities. This prompted an organizational change for pharmacy from a hospital department to a clinical division. The division of pharmacy now consists of three professional departments (patient care, pharmacy research, and pharmacy academic programs) and an administrative support service area. Services offered by each of the three departments are discussed, along with specific initiatives planned for the years 1987-1993. Within the next few years, all managers will come from the ranks of clinical practitioners; nonpharmacists will oversee financial and human resource functions. The division encourages existing pharmacy staff members to enhance their clinical skills through staff development programs. Strategic planning serves the dual purposes of structuring plans for implementing clinical pharmacy services and communicating pharmacy's goals within the institution.
D002173:Cancer Care Facilities / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over; D006782:Hospitals, Special / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010934:Planning Techniques; D012106:Research; D013781:Texas