How to Make Effective Plans - Plan early - There are six basic steps to effective planning

Sep 21, 2026

A practical guidance on effective planning for healthcare managers, arguing that planning is essential rather than optional in busy, resource-constrained environments. It explains two core planning questions, why planning improves goal-setting and cost control, and how early and continuous planning prevents missed considerations and delays. The document provides six actionable steps—define goals, collect data, develop methods, organize the plan, put it to work, follow up—plus a set of diagnostic questions for managers to evaluate preparedness, deadlines, coordination, monitoring, risks, and performance signals.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

How to Make Effective Plans

Plan early

Plan continuously

There are six basic steps to effective planning:

Ask questions

# How to Make Effective Plans PLANNING is something they do inprivate,overstaffed hospitals thathave a lot of money."It's easy to understandhow a health services manager struggling tomeet a multitude of demands could reachsuch a cynical conclusion.But planning isn't aluxury for the idle to indulge in.Actually,it'seven more important for hurried and harassedmanagers to plan ahead than it is for thosewho seem to have more time. Planning is valuable for two reasonsFirst,if the future is left to chance,few things willturn out as they should.If you want yournursing staff to be up on all the latest tech-niques,you'l have to plan for a continuingeducation program.If you don't plan,a yearfrom now your nursing staff will be anotheryear behind in technical advances. The second reason for planning is that themore you think about a problem,and the bet-ter you understand its ramifications,theeasier it will be to adjust to changing circum-stances and make allowances for details thatdon't work out.The more fully you'veplanned-that is,the more systematicallyyou have thought about the problem -theless likely you are to reach an impasse. Planning can be thought of simply as a deli-berate attempt to answer two questions: 1.What needs to be done? 2.What's the best way to do it? You should answer both these questions Volume 8,Number 23 December 7,1975 HOSPITAL SUPERVISION Published by AMACOM,a division of American Management Associations. well before you plunge into a project.If youdon't,chances are thatyou won't achieve qual-ity healthcare or keep costs down.Why?Planning helps you both to establish goals andto set up the necessary procedures to achievethose goals. ## Plan early But make sure to do your planning early.Last-minute planning is almost as bad as noplanning at all.If you wait until the eleventhhour,you're likely to overlook some im-portant considerations in your haste.Andeven if you don't forget anything,you may beshort on time to actually put your plans intoaction. # Coming:ANew Look for the New Year In January,HOSPITAL SUPERVISIONwill become HEALTH SERVICES MAN-AGER.Addressing managers and super-visors in all healthcare facilities,it willoffer new departments (on the manage-ment of nursing care and interdepart-mental coordination)and articles byhealthcare experts.In 12 large pages(8%"x 11")—a 50 percent increase insize over the 6 smaller pages now mailedtwice monthly—it will be mailed once amonth at the same annual subscriptionrates. Plan continuously Effective planning must also be continu-ous.You can't stop once housekeeping stan-dards have improved or classes in new nursingtechniques have begun.You must be planningchanges in housekeeping procedures to allowfor an increase in traffic around new equip-ment;you need to revise billing procedures asMedicare and welfare systems are overhauled;you need to rearrange labs to get the most outof new equipment;and on and on.Planningmust continue from day to day,month tomonth,year to year.No matter how fully developed or carefully prepared,plans usuallyhave to be modified to meet changing condi-tions. ## There are six basic steps to effectiveplanning: 1.Define goals.Try to write down eachgoal in one or two sentences.If you find thatyou have several interlocking goals,split themapart and pursue them separately,if possible. 2.Collect all pertinent data.Find out whatmethods have been tried before and whichseemed to work best.Find out how circum-stances have changed and take them into ac-count.If,for example,your healthcare centerhas a relatively new midwife program,the en-tire obstetrics unit has undoubtedly changedfrom what it was 10 or 15 years ago.Pro-cedures that worked then may not work now. 3.Develop the best method.Once youknow what methods have been tried andwhich ones worked best under certain circum-stancesyou'l be ready to decide how to pro-ceed at this time.In developing a method,eliminate unnecessary steps,combine stepswhere possible,simplify p

FAQs

Why does the document say planning is important for healthcare managers?

It states that leaving the future to chance leads to poor outcomes, while planning helps set goals and establish procedures. It also emphasizes that deeper analysis makes adjustments easier when circumstances change.

What are the two questions the document says planning should answer?

What needs to be done, and what is the best way to do it. The document advises answering both before starting a project.

What are the six basic steps to effective planning?

Define goals; collect all pertinent data; develop the best method; organize the plan; put the plan to work; and follow up to ensure everything proceeds as expected and corrective action is taken when needed.

Sep 21, 2026

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