Strategic planning is important in the healthcare environment to focus its energy, and resource capabilities in settings goals and objectives, to identify opportunities that would drive the organization towards attaining highest potentials and also identify key weakness in the system and the obstacles which might play a role in preventing the healthcare facility from realizing its objectives and highest potentials. As such, there are many factors that affect future planning in a healthcare organization (Martin, 2018).

One of these factors is the budget. The organizational budget is a financial record that outlines different resources which are necessary for carrying out different activities to realize goals and objectives of the organization. Secondly, the needs of the stakeholders affect future planning in the organization. The stakeholders are defined as the people, community or persons who affect and/or have the potential to affect an organization either directly or indirectly. The needs of the stakeholders must be therefore considered and prioritized since they are key factors in relation to future planning. Thirdly, the available resources in the organization affect strategic planning. Resources are the most key factors to consider in strategic planning (Willis, Cave &Kunc, 2018). Therefore, the organization needs to factor in the available resources in order to effectively plan for the tasks and activities which can be effectively done with the existing resources. It is worth noting that strategic planning cannot be effective without resources or taking into consideration non-existent resources. More importantly, the organizational priorities must be based on how to generate revenue.

There are many tools that can be used for future planning, and they include: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, these allows for individualized realization of improvement needs, opportunities available, and potential threats that may have a negative impact on healthcare. Another tool is visioning. Visioning is a tool that centers on goal-setting and the development of a deeper vision for the future. Look five years into the future and establish goals your organization wants to reach. Then, identify the steps it will take to reach those goals (Hart, 2019).