SWOT Analysis
Collecting data through the SWOT analysis along with other activities such as ESP
and planned visioning exercises are necessary building blocks to develop a long-range
strategic plan.
Jump to: Education | Research | Clinical
Education
Strengths
- Largest number of health degrees granted in GA
- Committed, full-time faculty
- Meets workforce needs of GA
- Community partners/affiliations
- High student retention, graduation & board rate
- Affordable
- Leader in technology
- Second largest GME program in GA
- Education Discovery Institute
- State-of-art dental facility
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Weaknesses
- Insufficient resources – faculty, scholarships, philanthropy, GME capacity, infrastructure,
faculty development opportunities and agility
- Partnerships produce inadequate (1) clinical venues to support education, (2) educational
research activity and (3) professionals to meet the state’s health needs
- Continued reliance on non-binding affiliation agreements
- Diversity – inconsistent cross-cultural competencies and organizational make-up is
not representative of community served
- Absence of School or Institute of Public Health
- Curriculum lacks primary care training emphasis, inclusion of quality, information
technology, inter-professional teams, customer service and patient centeredness, volume
of advanced practice clinical education
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Opportunities
- Growth of partnerships to increase volume
- Capital campaigns for new facilities
- New programs in public health
- Expanded diversity and cultural competency of graduates
- Educational, philanthropic and advocacy support from large and geographically dispersed
alumni
- Enhanced professional development
- Increased pipeline for grad and undergrad programs
- Increased financial support from state, federal and other extramural sources
- Increased use of distance learning
- Expanded diversity in dental education
- More research and public service opportunities
- Leverage mobile and technology for tech transfer
- Expand GME programs
- Increase visibility of scholarship and research in education
- Process improvements for enhanced customer service and
educational delivery
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Threats
- Potential for declining GA support
- Inability to recruit and retain high-quality faculty
- Competing options for health education within the state/region
- Competition for state’s underrepresented minority students
- Gap between production of professionals and workforce needs
- Inadequate infrastructure and resources
- Increased student financial aid needs
- Shrinking intramural funds
- Lack of new GA GME program development and expansion of existing program
- Fewer external clinical practice sites
- Insufficient GA retention of UME graduates for GME programs and GME graduates entering
workforce
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Research
Strengths
- Faculty
productivity
- Significant
NIH funding in CV disease, diabetes/obesity and inflammation, neuroscience
and cancer
- Large
catchment area for population-based research
- Core
facilities that support basic science research
- Significant
growth in extramural funding over the last decade
- Existing
discovery institutes
- Internationally
recognized GPI children’s health program
- Growing community-based research
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Weaknesses
- Resources
– declining NIH funding, inadequate FTEs, space to grow, weak clinical
research program, lack of extramural, discretionary and philanthropic
funding, inadequate IT infrastructure, insufficient epidemiology and
bio-statistical support and lack of core resources for population and
community research
- Small
revenues from and inadequate infrastructure to support commercialization
- No or
small efforts related to comparative effectiveness, primary care, clinical
trials and population-based research.
- Incomplete
alignment of clinical service development with research initiatives
- Absence
of School or Institute
of Public Health
- Small
number of NIH institutes funding GHSU research and small number of NIH
program/center grants
- NIH and CMUP institution rankings
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Opportunities
- Community and population-based research in the CSRA
- Recruitments to expand licensing revenues and commercialization, philanthropy, public
health and epidemiology research and cancer program
- Collaborate with other USG/private institutions as well as Savannah River National
Laboratories and the VA Medical Center; leverage national light rail access
to facilitate collaborations
- Funding to support Center for Regenerative & Reparative Medicine
- Increased federal funding for comparative effectiveness research
- Leverage discovery institutes
- Expand access to clinical population information through HIE
- Align with Board of Regents initiatives
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Threats
- Decline in industry and federal government-sponsored research
- Loss of funding for the Cancer Research Center and Georgia Research Alliance and potential
for further funding losses due to competition
- Large percentage of NIH funding in basic sciences to individual investigators
- Loss of funded faculty to other institutions
- Support to post-doctoral and graduate students not keeping pace with growth
- Net decrease in NIH salary caps
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Clinical
Strengths
- Uniquely
positioned to improve and manage the health of a population
- Has a
number of unique services
- Only
large, multi-specialty physician practice in region
- Multi-disciplinary
expertise among health professionals
- Region’s
only academic health center
- Large
IT investments
- Experience
in developing approaches that address health needs
- Has
beginnings of a distribution channel
- Committed to integration of the enterprise
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Weaknesses
- Resources
– aging physical plant; insufficient funds to grow; insufficient
philanthropy; decrease in market share and declining/flat patient volumes;
not focused on state and region for growth; and disproportionate share of
Medicaid and self-pay patients.
- Limited
multi-disciplinary and inter-professional collaboration and lack of
integration across all clinical care areas
- Non-integrated
ambulatory care sites
- IT
investment not leveraged to maximum value
- Diversity
of providers inconsistent with the diversity of the community served
- Nascent practice plans in Colleges of Nursing and
Allied Health
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Opportunities
- Expand
partnerships across GA to create a larger health system
- Provide
greater access to tertiary and quaternary services to patients outside
local MSA
- Create
niche markets
- Meet
unmet needs of GA and SC
- Continued
shift of service to outpatient setting
- Changes
caused by health care reform
- Expanded
CMC, e.g., Albany/Phoebe Putney model
- Leverage
group purchasing
- Improve
quality metrics to appeal to discerning consumers
- Maintain competitive personnel compensation
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Threats
- Declining
revenue
- Ongoing
perception of health system as only indigent care hospital
- Transition
from volume to value-based reimbursements
- Shift
of tertiary services into community hospitals
- Workforce
shortages
- Changes
caused by health care reform
- Increased
costs
- Other academic health centers entering the market
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