Strategic planning in health care: methods and applications.

This article reviews planning methods currently being used by health care organizations to meet current challenges and investigates the relationship of these planning methods to total quality management. It suggests that planning methods that stress the achievement of objectively defined and measurable outcomes directly related to organizational priorities are superior to methods that emphasize as endpoints the implementation of programs (processes) without direct measurement of their effectiveness. Finally, it provides an overview of planning practices within the ScrippsHealth system.