A human-centred strategic plan for Goulburn Valley Health
Together for good – the client challenge
Goulburn Valley (GV) Health is the main health service and largest permanent employer in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley, with more than 2,500 staff across five sites and a catchment population of more than 120,000 people.
GV Health provides a broad spectrum of high-quality services for people of all ages and diverse health and wellbeing needs – these include services for women and children, mental health, cancer and wellness, dental, dialysis, emergency, medical and surgical care, allied health, diagnostic, rehabilitation and residential aged care.
Regional communities are undergoing significant change, with rapid population growth, ageing populations, and growing diversity. Against this backdrop, we know that people in regional and rural areas have disproportionately poorer health and wellbeing than their urban peers. Obesity and associated chronic diseases, cancer, and mental health, drug and alcohol-related illnesses are critical issues requiring accessible, person-centred and consistently high-quality regional health service delivery.
GV Health engaged Cube Group to produce a 5-year strategic plan that navigated key socioeconomic drivers and created a roadmap for the ongoing delivery of positive health and wellbeing outcomes for Goulburn Valley communities.
Bringing the right thinking and people to the table
We rolled out a robust, engagement-led strategic planning process that connected us with the Goulburn Valley community and featured deep engagement with GV Health’s staff, partners, authorisers, funders and local health and human service system stakeholders.
We worked extensively with the GV Health Board and executive and captured the voice of clinical and corporate staff across all parts of the organisation. Our inclusive engagement approach allowed us to capture a diverse cross section of ideas, insights and opportunities related to GV Health’s future.
We engaged with the GV Health Community Advisory Group to ensure the voice of community was at the centre of our thinking and connected with neighbouring health and community service providers to ensure a holistic perspective across Victoria’s North-East health and wellbeing landscape.
We also undertook targeted benchmarking of high-performing regional health services in Australia and internationally to test and expand our horizons.
The positive change we delivered
Our work culminated in the production of a 5-year strategic plan for GV Health that sets out how the organisation will work with the local community, healthcare partners, and government to deliver high-quality care for all in the Goulburn Valley region.
We designed four key pillars that formed the architecture of the strategy:
Safe and high-quality healthcare that always puts people first
Values-based healthcare partnerships which deliver equitable and accessible healthcare for all
An inspirational workplace founded on a strong culture where talented people work with purpose and pride
A positive healthcare environment that fosters collaboration and innovation
The strategic plan tells an engaging story about the organisation, is visually striking, and has become a benchmark strategy for regional health services in Victoria. GV Health CEO Matt Sharp introduced the strategy: “Our new five-year strategic plan puts people and their families who GV Health provide services for at the centre of everything we do.”
The document is available at:
http://www.gvhealth.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Goulburn-Valley-Health-Strategic-Plan-2019-23.pdf
Insights for inquisitive minds:
The key to exceptional strategic planning is human-centred engagement. The better the engagement within and outside an organisation, the more informed, inclusive, and effective the strategy will be.
Regional health services are part of the cultural fabric of local communities – the diverse and authentic voice of the community must be the driving force behind strategy development.
Health services operate in a complex and geographically dispersed health and wellbeing ecosystem. Understanding organisational linkages, dependencies and care pathways is a key strategic planning input.
“Regional health services are critical to the future of healthy and vibrant regional and rural communities.”
Andrew Belton
Director, Cube Group
