title: Strategic alliance: adapting to the business environment in long-term care.
abstract: This article is addressed to long-term-care administrators and planners as well as purchasers of long-term care. Believing the current and future business environment will force continued adaptation in long-term-care organizations, the authors utilize nine categories to map pressures for change: cultural, technological, educational, political, legal, natural resource, demographic, sociologic, and economic. Long-term-care organizations, especially those that are not-for-profit, are becoming members of alliances as one way of addressing these pressures. This article describes and presents a case example of a composite alliance to demonstrate the advantages of membership in a strategic alliance. We also present examples of ways in which alliance members use strategic partnerships to improve their ability to manage these forces.
authors.affiliation: Penn State University, 777 West Harrisburg Pike, Middletown, PA 17057-4848, USA. czm10@psu.edu
authors.forename: Cynthia Massie
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Mara
authors.forename: James T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Ziegenfuss
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006265:Health Care Coalitions / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019981:Health Care Sector; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000639:trends; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D014481:United States