Adapting to Change through Strategic Planning: Fairmount Home
Assignment
Fairmount Home is a 128-bed long-term care home located in, and operated by, the County of Frontenac. Established in 1968, the home provides 24-hour nursing and personal care in a team-based model of care including a physician, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, personal support workers, allied health professionals and support services.
Fairmount Home was seeking an updated Strategic Plan which considers the significant transformation and change for Canada’s health care system and the long-term care sector since the development of its previous strategic plan. Fairmount Home was seeking an updated strategic plan that was focused on building consensus around the highest-priority areas of focus, maintaining the home’s reputation as the “home of choice” in the region, and adapting to changes in the long-term care landscape post-pandemic.
What Santis Did
The Santis team carefully defined the scope and nature of the strategic planning process with Fairmount Home’s project team and senior leadership team.
The team leveraged knowledge of the key political trends in Ontario, changes in the health care system and the long-term care sector, combined with an understanding of the Fairmount environment to plan and conduct engagement with key stakeholders.
Santis carried out engagement with Fairmount Home’s broad stakeholder community– including residents and caregivers, staff, leadership, and Frontenac County Council, with an overall aim to gather crucial perspectives on Fairmount Home’s role today and in the future and to inform the development of Fairmount Home’s strategic priorities.
The findings from engagement were paired with the key themes from the internal scan, to develop a starting point for the development of the Strategic Plan. From there, Santis hosted a Strategic Planning Retreat with Fairmount Home’s leadership to generate Fairmount Home’s areas of focus, specific actions to advance its priorities, and a definition of what success looks like by the end of the strategic plan.
The Strategic Plan was developed iteratively with feedback from Fairmount Home’s leadership team. The final, designed version of the Strategic Plan was presented to County Council for approval in early September 2023.
Outcomes
The key outcome of this work was a renewed Strategic Plan for the period between 2023 – 2027 which aligned Fairmount Home’s forward-looking objectives with evolving health system and sectoral trends.
The engagement process enriched the Strategic Plan with perspectives from Fairmount Home’s stakeholders, ensuring that the plan reflected the diverse wants and needs of Fairmount Home’s stakeholder community.
Santis Health’s experience in the long-term care sector ensured the strategic plan reflected the current external, as well as internal, challenges and opportunities for long-term care leaders such as Fairmount Home. Their guidance in the facilitation of stakeholder engagement sessions ensured the strategic plan incorporated feedback from residents, caregivers, staff, and volunteers.
Fairmount Home’s strategic plan will guide the home’s focus by enhancing on our Gentlecare® philosophy of providing high-quality, resident-focused care and ensuring the home continues to be the long-term care home of choice for our residents, staff, and volunteers.