Following Our Own Advice About Strategic Planning

By Majd Alwan, Executive Director, Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST)

It’s hard to be successful in the field of aging services without also being attuned to the importance of strategic planning. That’s because our field is always changing — and those changes require a deliberate effort on the part of successful organizations to change along with it.

After all, change is part and parcel of the work you do every day as you serve adults with changing needs, test and adopt new care models, adapt to new payment systems, and anticipate serving a dramatically changing consumer as the baby boomers age.

The most successful organizations have a pretty good idea of how the future is likely to unfold — and how they can prepare for that future. Strategic planning is the key to acquiring that knowledge. That’s true for your organization. It’s true for CAST, IAHSA and LeadingAge as well.

Who Else is Taking CAST’s Advice?

There are strong indications that the larger U.S. ageing services organizations are following our strategic planning advice.

They are building their competitiveness by building the sophistication of their corporate-level employees. And the C-suite increasingly includes a chief information officer (CIO).

Why is this significant? Because a CIO is someone whose job is focused squarely on strategic IT planning. Basically, the CIO is the person that organizations rely on to help them understand how technology can help their organizations meet their strategic goals.

CAST has developed a number of other tools to help provider organizations sort through technologies, including electronic health records, shared care planning and coordination, telehealth and remote patient monitoring, medication management, and functional assessment and activity monitoring. Each is accompanied by a white paper describing provider experience with these technologies in their communities. They provide valuable information about how to use technology to improve quality and operational efficiency.

You can check out these valuable resources here.