2011-2016 Strategic Plan The Trusted Leader in Chiropractic Education
CONTENTS Letter from the Chancellor.............................1 Theme and Overview.................................2 Strategic Planning at Palmer College....................2 The Planning Process.................................3 Mission and Vision...................................6 Mission............................................6 Vision.............................................6 Direction 1: Student Learning..........................7 Direction 2: Healthcare Delivery........................8 Direction 3: Service..................................9 Direction 4: Resources & Support......................10 Direction 5: Advancing Knowledge Through Research......12 Institutional Key Indicators...........................13 Strategic Planning Committee.........................14
Letter from the Chancellor To the Palmer Community; This spring we took an important step to plan, shape and position the College for future successes as we advance and distinguish Palmer College as The Trusted Leader in Chiropractic Education. Building upon previous planning processes and our mission, vision and tenets, the following five Strategic Directions will form the foundation of the College s planning for the next five years: Provide high quality, chiropractic-focused, academic and clinical research programs for diverse healthcare settings Model and provide chiropractic healthcare that is evidence-informed and integrates patient values and clinician experience Promote campus engagement, community service and professional participation Ensure and manage resources and processes in support of College programs and initiatives Improve human health by advancing knowledge These strategic directions are further defined by corresponding goals, objectives and annual initiatives with key indicators to form a complete plan. To facilitate our necessary progress over the five-year strategic plan, we have adopted a cyclical annual planning model that adds, edits or retires objectives and initiatives under each strategic direction. This plan is a high-level action plan that addresses the comprehensive needs of our institution. The collective thoughts of the organization are principal to the development of our new strategic initiatives. Therefore, the plan incorporates information and ideas contributed by faculty, staff and administrators within our community, as well as external stakeholders beyond our campuses. The planning committee was challenged by the constraints on human resources and budget as they sifted through the broad scope of improvements suggested by the community and other sources. Our students and their learning are at the heart of the committee s decision about what to include in the draft plan presented to the Board of Trustees. I want to thank everyone in our community for their important engagement in the process that led to this plan. I believe our efforts over the past six months to develop this plan have advanced our organization into a new era of institutional planning. Congratulations. I am very excited about the College s future and am committed to providing hands-on leadership to ensure that we achieve this vitally important work. Sincerely, Dennis M. Marchiori, D.C., Ph.D. 1
Theme and Overview STRATEGIC PLANNING AT PALMER COLLEGE Today s strategic planning calls for a comprehensive approach. It requires careful consideration of not only our internal environment, but the impact of the external environment. It documents our intended progress in such foundational areas as student learning, quality patient care, research, campus vibrancy, faculty and staff excellence, and appropriate resource management. In implementing our strategic plan, we must optimize our resource utilization our revenue, people, facilities, programs and information technology. At the same time we must remain agile; we must be able to respond rapidly to a fluid, competitive and progressively more demanding healthcare education environment. With that in mind, Palmer s strategic plan is multilayered, and vertically and horizontally integrated. Its origin is our Mission and Vision statements. Its development stems from multiple sources throughout the College and the broader community that is Palmer College of Chiropractic. Although conceived as a five-year plan, components of the plan will be updated annually as our progress is charted, and external circumstances and internal priorities require adaptation in a fluid, yet deliberate, manner. This past spring, the senior administration reviewed the past planning processes of the College with goals of improving the process. This included a review of the literature on planning. Following a review of commonly employed planning models, principally Mitzburg (1994) and Bryson (1995), the College adopted a number of meaningful improvements to its past planning efforts for the current planning cycle, including: Establish strategic directions under the previously accepted College Mission and Vision statements; Define and standardize the descriptive terminology employed by the strategic plan and process; Form a standing strategic planning committee of mid- and senior-level administrators; Adopt a formal, yet flexible, three-step planning model to assess current status, threats, opportunities, and establish annual action initiatives; Identify internal or external institutional mandates for change by accrediting agencies, laws, regulations, etc.; Provide mechanisms to gather employee and other stakeholder input into the initial stages of planning and to the draft annual plan; Link budget cycle, organizational structure and employee performance measures; and Enhance communication about the formation, draft and distribution of the final plan. We recommitted to using strategic planning as a structured approach to focus the people, processes and resources of the College in support of its mission. Our plan will inform the development of administrative processes, expenditure of budget dollars, 2
Theme and Overview, continued and required contributions of our stakeholders. It will guide which areas of the College grow and which areas are targeted for retrenchment and reallocation. In short, we believe that a strategic, transparent and community-based planning effort is key to the future success of the College. THE PLANNING PROCESS Our refined strategic planning process is a rational, progressive sequence of planning activities and resulting compilation of priorities to form a strategic plan. The plan is structured with the following elements: mission, vision and five overarching strategic directions. Each strategic direction is populated by supporting goals, objectives and annual initiatives with key indicators (Figure 1). The mission, vision and strategic directions are revisited periodically. Goals and objectives are revisited more frequently. As the smallest unit of documented strategy, initiatives are added, edited and archived annually. FIGURE 1 A planning committee, comprised of senior- and middle-level administrators, is responsible for drafting strategies to navigate the issues and events impacting the organization. Their work manifests as short-term actions or initiatives that the organization is committed to accomplishing. The planning committee conducts three interlocking activities to formulate strategic initiatives for the coming fiscal year. Each activity is designed to create a formal, yet flexible, process to recognize and assess environmental change, as described by Milliken (1990) and illustrated in Figure 2. 3
Theme and Overview, continued FIGURE 2 SCAN Scanning is the systematic review of trends, events and background information that impacts the organization s future. It includes a review of the evidence, from both qualitative and quantitative sources, internal and external to the organization. Scanning involves a strategic assessment of the organization s incremental progress toward its goals and objectives with the intent of uncovering ways to modify these steps in consideration of changing demographics, political and financial trends. INTERPRET Members of the planning committee make judgments about the meaning and importance of information gained during the scan phase and the feasibility and utility of response. Stakeholders in the organization identify more issues that can be managed or addressed in the short term. Therefore, interpretation is the activity of establishing a series of organizational priorities given available resources, issues related to sequencing, and capacity of work issues, allowing the organization to focus on the most important and urgent strategic issues. RESPOND Members of the planning committee formulate responses in the form of draft initiatives and key indicators based on the evidence and their judgments. The responses represent a community commitment to action based on the interpretation of information learned in the environment scanning process. The codified response has corresponding key indicators. 4
Theme and Overview, continued It is important to note that the strategic planning activities are not isolated to the planning committee. The planning effort is open to all employees by: holding open meetings on the planning process, conducting focus groups where employees could communicate what they thought should be included in the strategic plan, and posting drafts and a final version of the plan for employee open access, review and comment. Instead of consolidating everyone s ideas, the planning committee reviews the employee comments and takes responsibility for prioritizing, sequencing and finalizing the draft strategic plan to be approved by the Board of Trustees. Also, the strategic plan is not meant to comprehensively capture all the individual contributions and services of the employees of our organization. However, very importantly, it does transparently document the deliberate strategic directions and actions individuals are engaged in to improve the organization. In summary, advancing the organization is dependent on a solid plan, improved processes, and the commitment of all of Palmer s employees. References: Bryson, John M. (1995). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Mintzberg, Henry. (1994). The rise and fall of strategic planning. New York, NY: The Free Press. Milliken, Frances J. (1990). Perceiving and interpreting environmental change: an examination of college administrators interpretation of changing demographics. The Academy of Management Journal, 33(1), 42-63. 5
Mission and Vision MISSION The mission of Palmer College of Chiropractic, based upon the Palmer Tenets, is to educate and prepare students to become qualified members of the Chiropractic profession, qualified to serve as direct access primary health care providers and clinicians, competent in wellness promotion, health assessment, diagnosis and the chiropractic management of the patient s health care needs. Palmer is committed to advancing the understanding of chiropractic through research; to providing service to the field of chiropractic, including continuing education; and to serving humanity through patient care and community education. VISION Palmer College of Chiropractic educates and prepares graduates to be the future leaders of the chiropractic profession, successful in practice and in life through its commitment to academic excellence, a devotion to serving humanity, continuous development of its people, ongoing exploration and creation and utilization of new knowledge. 6
Direction 1: Student Learning PROVIDE HIGH-QUALITY, CHIROPRACTIC-FOCUSED, ACADEMIC AND CLINICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS FOR DIVERSE HEALTHCARE SETTINGS Palmer College, rich in tradition with a commitment to student learning, patient care and research, produces graduates who are clearly distinguished within chiropractic and other healthcare professions. The unique blend of academic programs and learning opportunities establishes Palmer College as the trusted leader in chiropractic education. GOALS 1. Attract and retain highly qualified applicants to all academic programs 1.1. Determine enrollment criteria for the Doctor of Chiropractic Program (DCP) in accordance with the 2012 Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) Standards 2. Provide a high-quality education to undergraduate and graduate students through evidence-informed academic programs that reflect contemporary practices 2.1. Publish an evidence-informed Palmer Paradigm of Care that guides students education in the DCP and Associate of Science in Chiropractic Technology (ASCT) programs and patients healthcare experiences within the Palmer Clinics 2.2. Increase evidence-based knowledge, attitudes and skills in the DCP curriculum and patient care practices at the Davenport Campus 2.3. Add personnel resources to help advance the clinical assessment plan 2.4. Raise National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) scores to above the national average on each exam on all campuses 3. Assess all academic programs to identify outcomes needing improvement 3.1. Ensure valid and reliable data for assessing faculty teaching performance 4. Attract, support and retain highly qualified and productive faculty to all academic programs 4.1. Secure a new Faculty Handbook Contract with the Florida Campus faculty 4.2. Train faculty in evidence-informed practices 7
Direction 2: Healthcare Delivery MODEL AND PROVIDE CHIROPRACTIC HEALTHCARE THAT IS EVIDENCE-INFORMED AND INTEGRATES PATIENT VALUES AND CLINICIAN EXPERIENCE Patient care excellence is advanced by processes and supported with data that demonstrates satisfaction, efficiency and efficacy, and recognition by graduates that they are prepared to participate in the healthcare environment. GOALS 1. The Palmer College of Chiropractic clinics provide authentic capstone experiences for interns 1.1. College clinics reflect a contemporary practice environment 1.2. Maximize terminal term precept participation 1.3. Foster cooperative, collaborative and/or integrative patient care relationships 2. The Palmer clinics employ and contribute to clinical and educational best practices 2.1. Support engaged, quality-focused clinician educators 2.2. Advance reputation for healthcare excellence specializing in chiropractic 3. The Palmer clinics are recognized for the quality of clinical education offered and healthcare services delivered 3.1. Maintain a reputation as radiographic imaging centers of excellence 3.2. Pursue clinical and educational quality-related acknowledgements 8
Direction 3: Service PROMOTE CAMPUS ENGAGEMENT, COMMUNITY SERVICE AND PROFESSIONAL PARTICIPATION Palmer College strives to maintain quality relationships with our local communities and the profession through service and to foster an environment of inclusiveness and engagement. GOALS 1. Enhance Relationships and Partnerships in support of the College's Mission 1.1. Prioritize professional memberships, sponsorships and external relationships 1.2. Continue efforts to engage and unify alumni 2. Enhance external understanding of Palmer's role and expertise 2.1. Ongoing implementation of health policy and governmental relations plan 2.2. Develop an effective branding strategy for the Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research (PCCR) 2.3. Develop a comprehensive strategy targeted towards both the media and policy makers with the goal of PCCR becoming known as a respected resource on chiropractic science and research in general 9
Direction 4: Resources & Support ENSURE AND MANAGE RESOURCES AND PROCESSES IN SUPPORT OF COLLEGE PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES Palmer College is committed to ensuring the coordination of the strategic plan with budget and other resources in order for the College to achieve its programmatic goals and objectives. GOALS 1. Enhance internal communications at Palmer College 1.1. Develop and deploy internal communications plan 2. Institutional effectiveness is assessed in relation to defined desired outcomes 2.1. Evolve strategic planning process 2.2. Appropriate links are clear between the College s Directions/ goals and operations and resource allocation 2.3. Appropriate facilities are created or maintained to support the College's Directions/goals 2.4. Enhance staff development 2.5. Maintain optimal corporate, educational and healthcare delivery compliance 3. Enhance College position through marketing 3.1. Continue implementation of comprehensive Integrated Marketing Plan 4. Enhance inclusiveness and diversity through implementation of diversity plan 4.1. Implement targeted changes to campus culture 4.2. Enhance enrollment, retention and graduation of diverse students reflective of regional populations 4.3. Enhance attitude, knowledge and behavioral learning goals surrounding diversity in the curriculum (continued) 10
Direction 4: Resources & Support, continued 4.4. Increase employment and retention of diverse employees 4.5. Reflect local diversity in our patient base 5. Enhance enrollment 5.1. Deploy enrollment strategies to attract the highest level performing students 5.2. Continue implementation of Enrollment Plan 6. Expand annual and project-related gifts 6.1. Review and enhance structure, function, and effectiveness of Development Office 7. Develop and implement a plan to enhance compliance with Title IX 7.1. Create a five year plan for athletics 7.2. Create a five year plan to guide compliance with new regulations re: violence 8. Award scholarships in the best interest of the College and all students 8.1. Determine population of students receiving scholarships 8.2. Maximize scholarship opportunities for students on all three campuses 8.3. Ensure that students applying for scholarships have equal opportunity for awards 9. Enhance career opportunities for students and alumni 9.1. Re-energize the Palmer Center for Business Development 9.2. Develop a "Destination Success Plan" for our students 9.3. Provide new and innovative business modules for our students and alumni 9.4. Enhance alumni and student career networking and mentoring opportunities 11
Direction 5: Advancing Knowledge Through Research IMPROVE HUMAN HEALTH BY ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE Palmer College is dedicated to the advancement of public health by developing knowledge and translating that knowledge to the practice of chiropractic health care. GOALS 1. The PCCR is acknowledged by scientific and healthcare peers as the leading center for chiropractic research in the world 1.1. Increase the number of publications in top tier journals 1.2. Increase visibility of faculty and staff within scientific community 1.3. Increase the number of collaborations that are initiated by outside institutions 2. The PCCR has developed its clinical and translational research abilities across all campuses, strengthening both scientific expertise and research infrastructure 2.1. Increase scientific expertise and ensure adequate succession planning 2.2. Increase external funding 2.3. Increase support services for research 2.4. Increase mentorship of and by PCCR faculty and staff 3. The PCCR is noted for translating research findings into both clinical and public health practices 3.1. Establish baseline data and increase awareness of evidence-informed practice of faculty, students and practitioners 3.2. Disseminate information in peer-reviewed and widely-read publications 12
Institutional Key Indicators Palmer College will monitor the effectiveness of the strategic plan through the institutional key indicators, which are both qualitative and quantitative. More detailed key indicators for strategic goals and objectives are attached to individual division or department initiatives. The College s progress towards achievement of the plan will be shared with the Palmer community. Examples of institutional key indicators include: Clinical Integrity Plan Outcomes Research grants and publications Enrollment Scorecard Marketing Program Outcomes Compliance Report Diversity Plan Outcomes Evidence-Based Teaching Tracking Report Student, patient and employee satisfaction survey results Report on organizational communication Allocation of Funding for Strategic Plan Initiatives Facilities Report Palmer Center for Business Development Scorecard Academic Scorecard 13
Strategic Planning Committee CO-CHAIRS Dennis Marchiori, D.C., Ph.D. Chancellor Judy Silvestrone, M.S., D.C. Executive Director for Strategic Development, Chief Compliance Officer MEMBERS Kevin Cunningham, D.C., Ph.D. Vice Chancellor for Student Success Jeannette Danner, M.S. Senior Director for Accreditation and Licensure Darren Garrett, B.A., APR Executive Director for Marketing and Public Relations Christine Goertz, D.C., Ph.D. Vice Chancellor for Research and Health Policy Donald Gran, D.C. Dean of Academic Affairs, Florida Campus Robert Lee, M.B.A. Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement Peter Martin, D.C. President, Florida Campus William C. Meeker, D.C., M.P.H. President, West Campus Michael Novak, M.B.A. Vice Chancellor for Enrollment 14
Strategic Planning Committee, continued MEMBERS Kevin Paustian, D.C., C.C.S.P., C.C.E.P. Associate Professor and Director of Student Academic Affairs Robert Percuoco, D.C. Vice Chancellor for Academics Tom Souza, D.C. Dean of Academic Affairs, West Campus Thomas Tiemeier, B.B.A., C.P.A. Vice Chancellor for Administration, Chief Financial Officer Alexis VanderHorn, M.B.A. Senior Director for Financial Affairs Dan Weinert, D.C., M.S., DACRB Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs Kurt Wood, D.C. Vice Chancellor for Clinic Affairs The Trusted Leader in Chiropractic Education 15
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DAVENPORT CAMPUS 1000 Brady Street Davenport, IA 52803 WEST CAMPUS 90 East Tasman Drive San Jose, CA 95134 FLORIDA CAMPUS 4777 City Center Parkway Port Orange, FL 32129-4153 www.palmer.edu