Learn what PESTEL analysis is and how to conduct it in the healthcare sector to anticipate external impacts. Contact us for more information!
For healthcare organizations amid strategic planning, a PESTEL analysis can be a useful tool. That’s because the best strategies—the ones that position organizations for their best chance of success in a particular period—are developed in large part based on external factors in which a company operates.
What is a PEST analysis in healthcare?
A PEST analysis is a framework for healthcare organizations to analyze external events and trends in four areas that commonly affect their business operations and performance, specifically:
A variation of PEST that provides additional insights, called PESTEL, also includes:
The concept of assessing these factors was introduced in Frank Aguilar’s pioneering book, Scanning the Business Environment, and has evolved over time. For healthcare organizations today, the practice of performing a PESTEL analysis is acknowledged as an important component of strategic planning. (It’s sometimes accompanied by the more well-known SWOT analysis, which assesses internal factors in relation to company performance.)
The components of a PESTEL analysis are categorized into four main areas: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal.
Changing tax legislation, consumer protection and employment regulations, and insurance mandates are all elements in the political sphere that could have an impact on healthcare.
For example, a change in tax policies may call for a strategy adjustment that either takes advantage of increased government spending for healthcare or makes allowances for reduced government subsidies. Or, changes in employment law, like the 2016 legislation that impacted employee overtime requirements, could mean major adjustments in staffing and overtime needs.
Unemployment, inflation, and interest rates are examples of economic issues that both directly and indirectly influence the financial performance of healthcare organizations. These changing conditions can have an impact on public spending policies and your purchasing power.
For example, if you manufacture healthcare equipment, a high rate of unemployment will mean fewer people can purchase your products. Or, more people losing jobs means a greater loss of health insurance coverage, which will affect the types of health services people seek out.
A PESTEL analysis for healthcare should also identify changes in demographics, values, and beliefs of your various consumer groups. A hospital, for example, should be knowledgeable about the community it serves to avoid violating widespread values or norms.
Factors like these should also play into your organization’s marketing strategy. Using content that shows you’re aligned with a specific sociocultural set of beliefs/values will boost the effectiveness of your marketing and impact your performance.
Technological advancements specific to hospitals and healthcare manufacturers could have a varying range of effects on your overall performance. The equipment being manufactured and used is continually changing, as is the development of new treatments. And new technology outside the healthcare field could also affect how an organization communicates with its consumers, as in app development or digital marketing.
Planning to take advantage of those advancements could mean good growth opportunities.
Environmental sustainability practices have both environmental and financial benefits for healthcare organizations. Many hospitals are now seeking LEED certification for environmentally-friendly building design; waste disposal programs are also coming under scrutiny.
Leadership in the areas of green environment practices also illustrates corporate social responsibility (CSR)—which should be a key part of any strategic plan.
Failure to follow new laws and legal procedures that govern healthcare could lead to immediate failure of your strategy. The legal implications of pending lawsuits, HIPAA compliance, potential hospital mergers, and more should all be taken into consideration as part of your overall strategy.
For each of the PESTEL components named above, make a list of factors that might affect your hospital or healthcare organization. Be sure to brainstorm with people who have expert knowledge of the business and/or the world outside the business, because everyone has unique insights. Sometimes the things you think are factors may not be the same as what others think.
Of the factors you and your colleagues have identified, determine which are likely to pose a challenge for your organization in the future. For example, if the turnover rate in the labor market is escalating, it could eventually occur in your organization, threatening your facility’s quality of care and even presenting safety issues. Rank each threat according to its overall impact if it were to occur.
On the flip side, determine which external changes could represent opportunities you can exploit. For instance, telehealth began to take off during the pandemic and has remained popular with many patients. Bolstering your telehealth services to match increasing demand will help you stay competitive, and offer a service your community wants.
Based on your determinations in steps two and three, identify the actions/projects/shifts in strategy that would help address these factors. It may mean adding a new objective, implementing new projects, or adjusting your KPIs. Even if you don’t feel it’s necessary to apply any resources to your PESTEL findings at this time, you now have valuable knowledge you can use for decision-making.
The next step is to adjust your strategy to reflect your PESTEL insights. Unless you’re prepared to handle this task in a piecemeal fashion across lots of departmental spreadsheets (which we wouldn't recommend because it’s a scattered approach), it’s best to do this work in a centralized strategy software tool like ClearPoint.
ClearPoint houses all your facility’s strategic information in one place, making it easy to see where adjustments need to be made.
In addition to centralization, strategy software helps you make the most of your PESTEL analysis by allowing you to:
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