An Honest Assessment of Your Healthcare Practice: The SWOT Analysis

ABSTRACT

Veteran consultant and author Owen Dahl offers a very broad overview for medical practice owners seeking to assess the overall condition of their respective businesses. He frames his advice on the tried-and-true model called a “SWOT” analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats—the classic forces exerting both positive and negative pressure on your business.

A SWOT analysis looks at internal forces (strengths and weaknesses) and external forces (opportunities and threats) to paint a realistic picture of your situation. Internally, your practice may have an inadequate physical plant or antiquated technology—obvious weaknesses. Then again, you may find that you have exceptionally effective leadership or an awesome, well-trained staff. Looking outside, you may see that your market provides little competition, or you may see the arrival of a new employer with hundreds of families needing the services of your specialty. But over and against these opportunities, you may see very large health systems intent on sweeping through your region to dominate and control the healthcare landscape. Such threats could spell disaster if you’re unable to deal with them.

Dahl further develops and enhances his SWOT analysis by advising practice leaders to drill down into the issues surrounding fourteen key areas of practice operations and development. His list includes:

1. Organizational structure
   

2. Location
   

3. Credentials
   

4. Accounting and reporting
   

5. Fee schedule
   

6. Coding
   

7. Software
   

8. Communication
   

9. Equipment and supplies
   

10. Marketing
    

11. Operations
    

12. Insurance
    

13. Human resources
    

14. Compliance and quality

He suggests analyzing each area with a set of about one hundred questions, with one question repeated for almost every category: “Do we have a process in place for an annual review?” Thinking through a SWOT analysis is never a “once-and-done” process—especially these days when the healthcare landscape seems to be in a constant state of flux.

In the end, Dahl likens the assessment to the process of examining a patient: look at the practice’s condition, investigate the symptoms, and dig deeper to discover the underlying etiology. Only then can you come up with a treatment plan with the best chance for success.

EXPERT COMMENTARY

Owen Dahl has been working with medical practices for decades, helping practice owners take a more corporate, businesslike approach to the development and operations of their organizations. In this article, he gives us a peek inside his consultant toolbox to allow a sort of DIY approach to practice analysis. Diagnosing your business with a SWOT assessment has long been upheld as one of the most effective formats to get a thorough picture of where you are—and good evidence to figure out where you need to go.

We can’t begin to do justice to the breadth of information in Dahl’s article in this brief abstract. We suggest you secure a copy of the JMPM article from AAPL, and work with your partners and administrators to evaluate your situation. Further, take to heart his emphasis on (at least) annual evaluations of the effectiveness of each aspect of the practice—perhaps scattering the reviews throughout the year so you aren’t overwhelmed by one gigantic project.

Owen J. Dahl, MBA, FACHE, LSSMBB, Journal of Medical Practice Management, March-April 2021