Prepare a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis for the following Project. Preparing this SWOT analysis requires answers to the following questions: a) What are the organization's strengths? b) What are the organization's weaknesses? c) What opportunities does the project selected above present to the organization in that context? d) What threats does the project selected above present to the organization in that context? Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center Hospital-wide Process Redesign. The growth in project management is powered by the speed of change in every sector of the American economy. The techniques traditionally applied to the manufacturing or aerospace industries are proving equally valuable in the services sector, particularly when applied to process redesign or improvement efforts. Children's Hospital of Seattle, Washington, a regional leader in pediatric medical services, initiated a large-scale redesign of its patient management process due to mounting customer complaints and signs of deteriorating employee morale. The hospital organized a team to undertake the effort of redesigning patient management systems and named the project "Encounters." The new system would streamline and standardize processes such as admitting, registration, scheduling, and insurance verification. The goal was to make things easier and more efficient at Children's, from the initial call from a family or doctor to the visit or stay, and following discharge. STAGE ONE: DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT From August to November the project team performed a diagnostic assessment as stage one of the effort. The team gathered customer feedback data, interviewed key organization stakeholders, created a process map of the current system, and identified external business needs driving current industry changes. The primary deliverable from this stage was the project charter. This document included a scope definition, process goals and objectives, project approach, resource requirements, cost-benefit assessment, and risk matrix. The project scope definition included the boundaries of the organizational change and the work required to accomplish it. STAGE TWO: PRELIMINARY DESIGN The project team quickly moved to the second stage - preliminary design -once the project charter was drafted and approved. Using creative thinking and proven process modeling tools, the team was ready to move forward to design a new patient management system. During this stage each new process link was painstakingly identified and documented. An iterative approach allowed successive design ideas to be layered in on top of the ever-developing process model. Patient scenarios were used to test the evolving design, allowing the team to walk through each step patients would encounter as they were admitted or treated. Stakeholder involvement is critical to organizational redesign, particularly during the development of the preliminary design, the new conceptual process model. To promote involvement and stakeholder input, a display room was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. From March through July, employees, patients, and physicians were invited to view the new preliminary design. Feedback was encouraged and received, creating repeated design adjustments throughout the phase. STAGE THREE: DETAILED DESIGN From July through December the team drilled the new processes down to the lowest level of detail as part of the third stage, detailed design. The new designs were rigorously tested through hours of computer-based process simulation. Using simulation, the project team was able to model system performance, running what-if scenarios to determine how long patients would have to wait to check in for a clinic visit and what it would cost if they added additional staff during specified shifts. It's important to realize that redesigning the process meant redesigning all aspects of the patient management system, including work flows, process performance measures, information systems, facilities and space, roles and job descriptions, and organizational culture. Computers don't simulate the social system components, so stakeholder involvement was designed into the process every step of the way. The communication plan consciously chose a variety of mediums to keep the information flowing, including a newsletter, all-hospital forums, and presentations to the hospital steering committee (HSC). STAGE FOUR: IMPLEMENTATION Eighteen months after the re-engineering effort had launched, the team began to prepare for stage four of the project: implementation. Significant changes were required for the hospital computer systems. New software was selected to meet the requirements of the new system design. New services were planned for rollout. Detailed comparisons of the current process were made against the new design so that changes would be identified and documented. Sequencing of dependent activities was determined and tracked on a master project plan. With implementation under way, the hospital has already begun to reap the benefits of its new Encounters patient management system. A more streamlined admissions process, including patient/ family valet parking, is producing increased customer satisfaction. The segments of referral processing installed so far are already producing enhanced efficiencies during the patient check-in process. STAGE FIVE: CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT Seattle Children's Hospital, like many organizations today, faced the formidable challenge of redefining the organizational culture. It endeavored to develop new norms for promoting continuous learning and continuous improvement. While continuous improvement is defined as the final stage of the redesign life cycle, it represents much more than the completion of the hospital's redesign project. It represents the cyclical nature of an improvement process. Encounters is changing both the processes and the culture of Children's Hospital. The team attributes its successes to many factors, including some of the universal best practices of project management.