Asian Health Service: Strategies and External Forces

Asian Health Service

Strategic planning is one of the critical functions of management, which is the definition of the key goals of the organization and ways to achieve them. This approach helps in the systematic development and forms an essential part of the company’s organizational processes. This work is devoted to the strategic analysis of the Asian Health Service and studying the influence of external forces on it.

External Forces Affecting AHS

Any organization is an open system that constantly interacts with the external environment. Therefore, organizations need to consider environmental factors in their activities and adapt to them. As for the AHS, the external forces that affect it are some financial pressure, competition with other medical organizations, and socio-cultural factors that include, for example, language difficulties. In addition, it is possible to mention demographic factors that relate to the place of residence of a large percentage of AHS patients and negotiations with suppliers that take a lot of time and effort (Chung & Chin, 2015). Finally, technological progress is also an important external factor that directly affects the quality of services. AHS needs to maintain a high level of technology to remain a competitive organization.

Competitors are enterprises and firms that conduct the same activity in the general sphere of market relations. The process of promoting goods and services and working with customers is called competition (Nasiri et al., 2021). The competition encourages market development, technological progress, and productive growth of goods and services. AHS’s direct competitors are other medical organizations providing similar services. In particular, it is necessary to specify public medical institutions and private clinics. The market space influenced by AHS competitors is buying and selling medical goods and services.

Competitive Advantages of AHS as a Solution to the Problem of External Forces

Asian Health Service (AHS) is a non-profit community health center in Oakland, California, whose goal is to form a corporate strategy to create a market with a high level of customer trust. Unlike other similar organizations, it provided a donation of three million dollars to develop primary healthcare services (Ginter et al., 2018). In addition, it has expanded new programs and services, such as pediatric dentistry and a bilingual Burmese patient care team. Finally, it secured a partnership with the local community development agency to build a new dental clinic.

Its vocation lies in serving and protecting the interests of people who do not have sufficient medical care, including the Asian community of immigrants and refugees. In addition, it pledged to ensure equal access to medical services regardless of income, insurance status, language, or culture (Ginter et al., 2018). The main competitive advantages of AHS are the staff who speak more than eleven Asian languages, a significant annual budget, and the commitment to patient health.

External areas influence the financial strategy of AHS, its attitude to patients, and plans for further development. In addition, the company’s management realized that AHS should not be a non-profit organization but a progressive business (Chung & Chin, 2015). External factors have also influenced political discussions affecting safe chemicals in nail salons. AHS stands out for its fundamental approach: patients choose this organization because they want to, not because they have no choice.

Competitive advantages will help AHS cope with threats from external forces. For example, heads of organizations can manage financial pressure with the help of an effective financial strategy that guarantees sustainability (Porter, 2008). Due to the high involvement of medical personnel in the health of patients, there is an increase in the number of patients, which has transferred the organization’s expenses from a deficit to a small profit. The language barrier is not a severe threat to AHS, as it has employees who speak a dozen Asian dialects, which contributes to a high level of understanding. Finally, external demographic risk can be solved thanks to the health insurance provided by AHS and the expansion of child and elderly care services.

References

Chung. K. & Chin W.N. (2015). Asian Health Services: Rediscovering a blue ocean [PDF]. Web.

Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Nasiri, M., Saunila, M., Rantala, T., & Ukko, J. (2021). Sustainable innovation among small businesses: The role of digital orientation, the external environment, and company characteristics. Sustainable Development. Web.

Porter, M.E. (2008). The five competitive forces that shape strategy. Harvard Business Publishing.