A SWOT analysis includes an organization’s self-assessment of the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in their environment as the organization considers a new goal. Strengths are those internal factors that are favorable to achieving the goal. Weaknesses are internal factors that interfere with achieving their goal. Opportunities are external factors that may help the organization attain its goal. Threats are external factors that may hinder the organization’s attainment of the goal. Assume you are part of a four provider Family Practice group, and the practice is considering replacing their existing electronic record with a more robust system in order to meet the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid goal of improving interoperability and patient access to health information (formerly known as meaningful use). The practice has used the current system for 12 years and is not meeting all the requirements for improving interoperability and patient access to health information. Address the weaknesses and threats of a small Family Practice group considering replacing their Electronic Health Record system and conduct a portion of the SWOT analysis for the practice. The identified components should be explicit and specific to the scenario.
