Sunday, May 8, 2011

SWOT Priority Table for Medical Laboratories.

So I was thinking about SWOT analysis and came up with some ideas about a tool that one could develop to help the process of translating SWOT analysis information into a priority list to get the important repairative  tasks addressed first.
The attached is based on the following assumptions or principles.

  1. Laboratories with more than one area of weakness, or threat, or areas with opportunities may seek help prioritizing tasks.
  2. While all Quality procedures are equal, some are more equal than others.  (I can this the Animal Farm principle).  For example, if there are improvements to be made both in Management Review and also in updating the organizational chart, it is more important to focus on management review.
  3. If a procedure is at an acceptable level, it does not need any work (other than maintenance), but if there are tasks that need to be done, those at a level of severe deficit (threat) they need to be addressed first.  
  4. Those where there are weaknesses or opportunities come next.  
So here is how this works.
  • In the left hand column I have listed many of the areas and procedures  that a laboratory doing internal review should evaluate.
  • Each area should be considered as either being in a healthy condition (strength) or having a weakness.  The weakness may be bad enough to be a potential liability.  Or there may be resources available to address certain areas (opportunities).  It is conceivable that a area could be both a threat and have an opportunity at the same time.  
  • For each procedure I have put a "1" in the Strength column.  If after evaluation you want to change this to any value from 0 to 1 to 1 decimal point.  You can also add a value (0 - 1) in any or all of the other columns.  
  • The four columns can add to 1.0 or greater. 
  • The more you make the line worth, the greater will be its priority.
  • Different procedures have different inherent procedure priority levels (PPV).  The PPVs  are the one’s estimated by me.  If you think different values could or should be used, change them.  Again, the greater the value, the greater will be its priority.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/173944/SWOT%20PriorityQD-0511.xls
 
Note: I have verified that this file works properly.  
Also note I have not  validated it as giving the best priority for addressing tasks.  
 
Feel free to use it, or experiment with it, or disregard.

Interested in your thoughts.

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