Planning Process

A main purpose of the strategic planning process is for the Office of Graduate Medical Education and the GMEC to define what is our current position and future vision for resident education and then to identify performance gaps between the two. There are several stages that need to occur for this process to be successful (see Figure 1). Each stage is briefly outlined below.

Planning to plan. During the planning to plan stage of the strategic planning process, Dr. Heaney secured the necessary levels of commitment and resources. He achieved this commitment through meetings with the Dean, the Graduate Medical Education Committee, and the residency program directors informing them of the start of the process and inviting them to participate. Next, he identified key individuals representing various residency programs to serve on the strategic planning committee. When the committee first met, with the assistance of a facilitator, the members received training in team process and consensus decision-making.

Values Audit. The first formal stage stemmed from the idea that values of residency programs, the institutional sponsor, affiliated hospitals, attending physicians, and residents directly impact what can or cannot be implemented or accomplished. The stage included an examination of:

• Individual values of the residents, physicians, administrators, and patients.
• Organizational values of the medical school, hospital, and University.
• Philosophy of operations including past strategic planning efforts.
• Organizational climate assessed through the Institutional Survey and Stakeholders Survey.

This stage was crucial for the strategic planning process. The outcome of the stage was an articulation of the future direction of GME.

Mission Formulation. A mission statement is a concise declaration of purpose that the GME programs are attempting to fulfill in society. The formulation of this statement was driven by three primary questions:

• What function does GME perform?
• For whom does GME perform this function?
• How does GME go about filling this function?

Once these questions were answered and mission statement developed, the strategic planning committee discussed in what type of climate the mission would be carried out and developed vision and core value statements that encompassed what resident education is about at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Strategic Modeling. During this stage, the process by which the GME Office, GMEC, and resident programs specifically defines success in the context of:

• the type of educational outcomes resident programs want to be producing (e.g., residents who are competent for clinical practice)
• how that success will be measured
• what will be done to achieve it.

The strategic planning committee has identified the strategic direction of resident education and associated goals. To further develop the strategic plan, measurable objectives and criteria of the associated goals needs to be established.

Implementation. The most difficult part of strategic planning and where many plans fail is in the implementation. For the strategic plan to successfully be implemented, the initiation of several action plans designed at the program and institutional level needs to occur. The best indicator in the success of a plan will be shown in how GME stakeholders integrate the component parts of the plan into their daily activities.

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