Strategic planning for addiction programs within academic medical centers: Examples from the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine

Abstract

Background Addiction programs at academic medical centers must navigate complex, multidisciplinary environments as they work to advance the field and improve substance use treatment access and outcomes. Programs can employ strategic planning processes to identify goals and strategies for success. Methods: The Yale Program in Addiction Medicine began a series of strategic planning activities in February 2020 with the primary aims of (1) conducting a point-in-time needs assessment for the Program and (2) identifying goals for Program improvement and expansion. Drawing upon a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis framework and the Delphi method for group decision-making, these strategic planning activities were implemented in four steps involving multimodal engagement and iterative feedback amongst Program faculty and selected stakeholders. Results: Primary deliverables included four overarching programmatic goals, associated action items, strategies for success, a proposed implementation timeline, and a revised Mission, Vision, and Values statement for the Program. Conclusion: Methodologic considerations and environmental factors offer insight into the strengths, limitations, and adaptive potential of this approach as well as others described in the literature. Key outputs highlight the benefits and timeliness of strategic planning for addiction programs, as heightened interest and investment in substance use treatment, prevention, and harm reduction paves the way for opportunity and innovation.

Keywords:

• Addiction medicine
• substance-related disorders
• strategic planning
• administration and organization
• organizational goal setting

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge members of the core and affiliated faculty of the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine who have contributed, and continue to contribute to the Program’s strategic planning activities.

Author contributions

EB led, and JT and DF contributed to conceptualization, design, and implementation of this strategic planning process. EB collected and analyzed associated data, interpreted results, and took the lead on writing this manuscript. JT and DF contributed to data analysis and interpretation as well as drafting and revision of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

None of the authors report a conflict of interest. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Yale School of Medicine or any of its academic affiliates.