Strategic Planning for Healthcare

Healthcare strategy tends to be a “black box” affair, shrouded in mystery by consulting firms or in foggy recollection from a long-ago college text. Dawn Carter believes it doesn’t have to be that way. Based on more than 30 years’ experience as a healthcare strategist, she has written a straightforward, consistently practical handbook for practitioners of every kind: seasoned executives, emerging leaders, board members, and students alike.

That book is Strategic Planning for Healthcare: How to Implement a LIVING Strategy. Rather than abstract theory or academic jargon, it is a step-by-step guide for anyone who wants to understand how a winning strategy evolves and how it creates positive change. Filled with anecdotes from real-world engagements, the book also introduces Great Health System, a hypothetical organization whose strategy takes shape across every chapter, tying the entire process together.

The LIVING framework – built around six essential elements of strategy formation and execution – gives practitioners at every level a shared language and a clear path forward. At the same time, the book is focused on why-to as much as how-to. Carter's conviction is that strategy isn't a chore or a compliance exercise. Done right, it is the beating heart that keeps healthcare organizations moving forward in an increasingly difficult environment.

With fresh analogies in every chapter drawn from art, history, engineering, and beyond, LIVING Strategy makes the unfamiliar immediately recognizable and keeps the pages turning.

For readers who enjoyed If Disney Ran Your Hospital or Hardwiring Excellence, this is the book on healthcare strategy that you’ve been waiting for.