Strategic Planning: River Valley Health

River Valley Health (RVH) serves an expansive region of New Brunswick (over 23,000 square kilometres), through nine community, specialty and regional hospital centres, an Extra-Mural (home care) Program, nine community-based health centres, and a collaborative practice.

River Valley Health has a proud history of coming together and using innovative solutions to serve the health and health care needs of Region 3 and beyond. Two major events have affected the region: regionalization in 1992, and the creation of regional health authorities in 2002.

In 2003/04, River Valley Health worked with Agnew Peckham to develop a new performance-based strategic plan. Despite the challenges of distance and weather, the process was highly participative, effectively involving almost 400 participants from 18 stakeholder groups as well as the board, physicians and clinical leaders. Core steps included

• a review of demographic data and an environmental scan
• a strategic planning questionnaire and review of the consolidated responses
• several planning sessions to develop and refine the draft directions, goals and initiatives
• input from clinical programs/services including written responses and presentations by clinical program leaders
• feedback from internal and external stakeholder groups
• a planning workshop to review the feedback, obtain advice regarding amendments to the strategic directions and initiatives and review the mission, vision and values
• meeting to review the input from the planning retreat and determine the necessary amendments
• development of a framework for implementation planning by senior management
• development of a strategic plan document

Value to Client

The new strategic directions are a valuable communication tool to inform staff, the public and government of major plans. They will guide the development of new initiatives and help with assessment of current services and infrastructure that no longer meet population needs. Overall, the plan charts the direction towards a successful health organization and healthier communities.

Relevance to Other Planning

Our work with RVH has refined our facilitation and conceptual skills which are applicable to any organization's planning process. These include

• relevant and focused stakeholder consultations
• practical directions and initiatives consistent with the planning framework preferred by the organization
• well written documents that clearly described vision, mission, values, goals, and objectives
• facilitation of discussions and commitment on the key elements of the strategic implementation process
• consolidating information from a variety of sources, to create a description of the organization, the people it serves and the programs and services it offers

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