What is meant by stakeholders in healthcare?

My organization falls into the healthcare services and facilities sector. Healthcare organizations have become increasingly more complex. According to Swenson et al. (2021), “This complexity requires greater awareness of factors that can affect transition efforts during organization development (OD) interventions as well as the subsequent downstream effects” (p.16). A critical piece to making any changes within a healthcare organization is to involve both internal and external stakeholders.

Identifying Key Internal and External Stakeholders

           According to Marques et al. (2020), “A stakeholder can be defined as any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the firm’s objectives” (p.379). Stakeholders are a critical factor in change. Internal stakeholders can include administrators, providers, nurses, and most importantly our patients. External stakeholders include government officials who pass bills and lobby for funding that impact the way we treat patients and community partners. Using the internal and external stakeholders to collaborate on changes adds a unique value for the organization.

Strategies to Develop Relationships with Stakeholders

Having the stakeholders involved in the creation of new ideas or new processes are found to have great success in organizational value creation. Successful partnerships can lead to emotional and social value like pride and recognition and strengthens a sense of community (Erhardt et al., 2019). To create those partnerships, it is important to explain the reasons for change and clearly define the benefits of the change and the risks of not changing. Having meaningful engagement will help them feel seen and heard and will lead to successful implementation (Masefield et al. (2021). Stakeholders need to feel empowered to advocate and participate in open forums.

Conclusion

           Stakeholders play key roles in decision-making. They have the power to influence policy changes and to better meet the needs of patients and the community. According to Swenson et al. (2021), “The role of stakeholders is one of the key considerations without which unintended consequences may occur” (p. 21). They can bring different perspectives and ideas that not one single person can think of. Both internal and external stakeholders are key to the success of healthcare organizations.

 References

Erhardt, N., Martin-Rios, C., Chan, E. (2019). Value co-creation in sport entertainment between           internal and external stakeholders. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 31(11), 4192-4210.

Marques, P., Bernardo, M., Presas, P., Simon, A. (2020). Corporate social responsibility in a      local subsidiary: internal and external stakeholders’ power. EuroMed Journal of  Business, 15(3), 377-393.

Masefield, S.C., Msosa, A., Chinguwo, F.K., Grugel, J. (2021). Stakeholder engagement in the      health policy process in a low income country: a qualitative study of stakeholder   perceptions of the challenges to effective inclusion in Malawi. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1), 984. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-07016-9

Swenson, D.X., Conbere, J.P. (2021). Stakeholder management in organization development. Organization Development Review, 53(4), 15-22. 

The multitude of different stakeholders in healthcare can represent a real challenge for healthcare organisations to build relationships and support positive outcomes.

Moreover, failing to engage with one or more stakeholder groups may pose a threat to the success of any project.

With change being constant in this industry, it is important to have a proper stakeholder engagement strategy in place to support public and patient involvement, manage expectations and reduce risks.

So what is the best approach to identify and effectively engage with stakeholders in healthcare?

Identifying and mapping stakeholders in healthcare

Start by looking into all your information sources - internal systems, spreadsheets, notes - and collate a list of all the potential stakeholders of your project, research, programme or organisation.

Internal and external stakeholders in the healthcare sector will include many different groups, to name a few:

• Clinicians;
• Patients and family members;
• Healthcare providers;
• Government agencies;
• Pharmaceutical firms;
• Staff;
• Investors;
• Local community;
• NGOs;
• Media;
• Research institutions;
• Charities.

From public health and social care to health promotion and research, in general, all healthcare organisations will have the "4 P's" as their stakeholders: patients, providers, policymakers and payors.

It's important to take the time to be thorough and leverage all your data resources. Consider using social media channels to identify stakeholders, it can be a helpful search tool.

Before getting started with the stakeholder communication plan creation, you must determine the needs and requirements of your stakeholders. They will expect different types of information, communication methods and attention. 

The stakeholder analysis process will provide you with a clear view of the various stakeholders your project impacts and will help you create tailored communication for each stakeholder audience.

To identify the key stakeholders in your project, start with these questions:

• Which stakeholders have a fundamental impact on our project?
• What's the relevance of your relationship with them?
• Who will be responsible or have decision authority on the project?
• What do you want/expect from them?

These will help you classify your stakeholders based on their relative influence and interest in the project.

Then use an interest/influence matrix or the salience model to categorise your stakeholders: 

Both methods are part of the stakeholder mapping process that will enable you to determine the appropriate communication type for each stakeholder group. 

If planning a public consultation, combining this stakeholder analysis with the RACI model will provide the best support for your consultation.

In case you would like to learn more about how to get started with stakeholder mapping (or review it), check our complete stakeholder mapping guide.

Engaging with stakeholders in healthcare

With your stakeholder groups mapped by interest and influence, you will be able to plan specific strategies to engage with them. 

Create a stakeholder engagement plan and map out your communication activities, frequency and tools based on the engagement needs of each stakeholder group.

The healthcare industry is highly impacted by its stakeholders and the interrelationship among them can be quite complex. They can provide research and funding as well as influence strategic direction and public opinion.

That's why stakeholder engagement in healthcare is crucial. By engaging with your different audiences in an effective way you will be able to:

• support projects;
• promote patient involvement;
• shape work programmes and services;
• learn the issues that matter to your stakeholders;
• support key audiences in understanding your work;
• understand potential risks;
• gather insights;
• build positive relationships;
• determine services priorities.

There are numerous engagement activities you can implement to maximise your stakeholder engagement.

Workshops, events, forums, focus groups, surveys, text messages and email newsletters are a few examples to be explored and tested.

Stakeholder engagement is a continuous process, where you must monitor engagement activity and use the valuable feedback and insights to shape your services and support your projects.

Regardless of your programme or project size, from building a new hospital to surveying a small group of people, creating a stakeholder strategy and planning the engagement with your stakeholders will allow you to work on the issues that really matter to the success of your project and to your stakeholders.

The importance of stakeholder data security in healthcare

When it comes to stakeholder information, the healthcare sector is a valuable target for malicious cyber activity as it handles highly sensitive personal data and intellectual property for research. 

Human error and process errors can also have a negative impact on sensitive data, resulting in data breaches and data loss.

Having personal details wrongly shared with strangers not only causes fear and leads to thousands (or even millions) in costs and compensation, but it can damage an organisation's reputation and confidence.

Using multiple platforms or spreadsheets to manage your stakeholder engagement can increase the risk of data errors and the time wasted on repetitive tasks (as well as having to manage logging in and out of several systems).

Selecting a stakeholder engagement solution that meets data privacy requirements and has a high level of data security can prevent serious risks and reassure your stakeholders that their information is being handled with the utmost care.

Deliver a consistent approach to stakeholder engagement in healthcare

Being able to engage with your stakeholders in the right way at the right time is invaluable to supporting the outcomes of any project in Healthcare.

Tractivity is helping many Healthcare organisations such as the NHS Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups and Integrated Care Systems to constantly improve their engagement processes and build positive relationships.

Our system can be used as a patient engagement platform, we provide all the communication tools to support your patient engagement strategy and facilitate engagement across different demographic backgrounds.

We're supporting the COVID19 Vaccine Programme, the Health Infrastructure Plan (HIP2 Programme) and other large projects across the NHS landscape.

Download our Supporting the NHS whitepaper and discover why many NHS organisations are choosing Tractivity as their stakeholder engagement and management system.

Contact us to learn more about how we can support your organisation in facilitating communication and improving your stakeholder engagement.