Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 400844

Coordinator Stacie Powell Opens in new window

Description Planning occurs at all levels within all health organisations, government, non-government and in the private sector. There is a hierarchy in planning health services with some global overarching policy documents, national agreed priorities which affect corporate and regional plans as well as local services and projects. Planning focuses on future directions for health, is value based and resource allocation driven. The process of health planning will be outlined including how to conduct a needs analysis, develop an evidence based approach, consult with stakeholders including the community, document an implementation plan and evaluate outcomes.

School Health Sciences

Discipline Health, Not Elsewhere Classified.

Student Contribution Band HECS Band 2 10cp

Level Postgraduate Coursework Level 7 subject

Equivalent Subjects BUSM 7104 - Strategic Analysis and Decision Making

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Discuss the concept of planning, the planning process and the need for planning by health managers
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the differences between strategic management, strategic planning, business planning and health service planning and their application in the public and private sectors
3. Demonstrate the capability to prepare key planning documents, including corporate and strategic plans, business plans and health service plans
4. Describe the differences between mission statements, goals, strategic objectives, operational objectives and balanced scorecard approaches to planning and their application in developing planning documents
5. Conduct a needs analysis including stakeholder consultation, analysis of relevant qualitative and quantitative data based on appropriate data sets and the capacity to collect relevant information
6. Develop planning competencies in the preparation of a strategic plan for a service of choice; using external and internal environmental scanning and population based planning approaches
7. Develop planning competencies in the preparation of a health service plan; including application of planning methodologies such as role delineation, data analysis of relevant data sets, clinical stream planning approaches including models of care, situational analysis and links with facility planning and asset management
8. Develop critical analysis skills in defining key issues for the planning process and strategies to address the issues
9. Develop and complete an implementation plan including risk mitigation strategies and identify and apply criteria to evaluate a plan

Subject Content

1) Strategic Planning in Health
2) Developing and implementing Strategic plans in the health sector
3) Developing service plans in the health sector
4) Conducting a needs analysis
5) Conducting community consultations
6) Evaluating health system performance (balanced scorecard)
7) Using evidence in health service delivery and evaluation