Importance of healthcare operations planning

Healthcare operations is a field of knowledge that integrates principles of management to determine the most efficient and optimal methods to support a patient’s journey through a facility.

From an operations perspective, health facilities may be categorised into sustainable ones (where revenues exceed costs) and non-sustainable ones (where costs exceed revenues).

The application of these operations principles covers various aspects including planning, implementation, controlling and continuously improving performance.

Therefore, a healthcare operations plan becomes an important tool with which an organisation manages both its internal and external environments.

Internally, it gels the organisation’s structures and processes gearing them towards key performance outcomes; mainly to satisfy its customers and staff.

Externally, it guides the organisation’s interfacing with key stakeholders such as insurance providers, professional bodies, academic institutions, trade unions and regulators through a well-defined business development schedule.

Traditionally, healthcare operations have been conducted using non-methodological approaches largely inclined on gut feelings, emotions and capricious decision-making. It is commonplace to have the management of healthcare operations undertaken by medics by virtue of their experiential knowledge in the medical and nursing fields.

However, it is important for healthcare managers to shift into implementing modern and impactful approaches of operations planning based on the level of complexity of their organizations, types of clinical services offered, organisational objectives and staffing skills set.