Lynn Cancer Institute External Environment

External Assessment

Evolution and change are constants in life, business, and the Healthcare Industry; no exceptions. Thus, if organizations want to either be innovators or maintain a competitive edge, it is imperative to periodically analyze and research the external environment for any opportunities and/or threats that may affect the business or industry. The following is an assessment to provide Lynn Cancer Institute a scan of relevant healthcare activities along with social, economic, technological, political, and regulatory aspects. This report also includes a competitor analysis that offers similar services as those provided by Lynn Cancer Institute. The end of the report will conclude with some highlights of opportunities and threats facing Lynn Cancer Institute.

Scan of Relevant Activities

In January 2009 the United States saw the swearing in of a new president and thus seeing a new administration in the White House. This administration is supportive of advancing biomedical research field by the push towards making research and development tax credits permanent. Also noteworthy is the priority of lowering health care costs by investing in electronic information technology system. Over the course of five years fifty billion dollars, ten billion per year, will be invested into the U.S. health care system for adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records (The White House: Agenda, 2009). In coordination, on February 5 an article published in the Wall Street Journal announced collaboration between Google and IBM to promote online health records with use of a single standard interface for communication. Though still in early phase, with only few hundred thousand patients proactively utilizing online health data systems, the usage will increase with the push by the new administration to lower health care costs. The aim is to provide patients with the ability to add data generated from home-health monitoring products into Google Health so to organize their medical records. Other software, created by IBM, will enable patients to send imperative information to electronic medical records kept by health companies or providers. IBM designed the software to computer standards agreed to by Continua Health Alliance, thus any device built with electronic-communication capabilities that complies with Continua can send information to a Google Health account using the IBM software (Vascellaro & Bulkley, 2009)

Nationally, hospitals employ more than five million people with every dollar spent by a hospital supporting more than two dollars of additional economic activity. Yet as the economy weakens, hospitals see fewer elective cases and provide more charity care which in turn accounts for the absorption of more bad debts. During this current downturn hospitals financial health relies on adequate funding of Medicare and Medicaid patients as these persons generate about half of the hospitals revenues. (American Hospital Association: Economic Downturn,