The impact of planning on the performance of faith-based hospitals:

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of planning on the performance of faith based hospitals a case study of Saidina Abubakar hospital. Planning is an important aspect needed at every level of management and concerned with creating procedures, rules and guidelines for achieving a stated objective. Planning is designed to identify how an organization can improve services, deliver national and regional targets and to also improve on the organization’s performance. The research was a descriptive and exploratory survey. The performance variables used and these were the level of sustainability, growth and expansion, level of service delivery and infrastructure development. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used when conducting the literature review where it was typically conducted in initial stages of the study where qualitative was ongoing throughout the entire study reflecting the need to understand data as it is collected, interpreted and synthesized. Secondary sources of information were also used and through this the researcher used the scholarly work and these included textbooks, journals, newspapers among others. The researcher used descriptive and cross sectional research designs. Descriptive research was used in describing the process and characteristics of accessing, managing the organization and cross sectional in choosing the respondents from where data was gathered within few days and research questions were answered. It was inevitable to triangulate methodologies; hence the study employed both quantitative and qualitative. Under the quantitative method, the researcher used cross sectional survey where data was collected on the variables of interest from the selected sample. Under the qualitative method, the searcher availed information as given by the respondents of the chosen case study which was Saidina Abubakar hospital. The findings of the study revealed that Saidina Abubakar hospital has an established planning process where all the organization activities are maintained and monitored which has led to the growth and expansion of the hospital. The findings of the study also revealed that the hospital cannot survive without planning and the different types of planning carried out included strategic planning, tactical and operational planning. In light, the following recommendations were made, Managers should be informed when strategic meetings are to be held in advance and keep on reminding them. A fixed number of times when planning should be carried is also vital so as managers are in position to know how often the organization carries out planning In order to improve on the working relationship between management and staff members, division of labor, minimizing on the rate of coming late and furthermore equity in terms of each category of staff should be emphasized.