Research Paper on "Public Health Evaluation Planned Parenthood"

Research Paper 8 pages (2219 words) Sources: 7

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) was established in 1942. It was formerly a previous organization, the American Birth Control League, which was founded by Margaret Sanger in 1921 (Planned Parenthood, 2013). Sanger and her fellow founders of Planned Parenthood had to deal with tremendous controversy regarding their dispensing birth control. Sanger was even arrested for the activities of the clinic. This has clearly set the tone for the current organization today, which despite controversy, continues to help women with sexual health issues. It is now the American partner of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. The organization's headquarters are in Brooklyn, New York, but there are a total of 85 affiliate branches around the country (Richards, 2007). All over the country, it provides low cost access to sexual health services, like sexually transmitted disease testing and contraceptives.

Internal and External Assessments

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Weaknesses

Planned Parenthood has over 85 affiliates all over the country. This allows the organization to best sere the largest number of patients. The branches are independently operated, allowing for a very decentralized strategic control that adapts to changes in population based on region.

The organization serves a low-income population. Thus, it often takes little to no money for its services. This is a necessary evil, because it provides the needed health services, but is severely limited to the amount of revenue it can generate. Without strong revenue sources, the organization may not be able to afford the best tools or equipment which could ultimately affect its overall quality of care delivered to its patients.

Opportunities

Threats

With the passing of the new Affordable Healthcare Act, Planned Parenthood can help secure more government funding by accepting PPOs. These new health plans are being offered to all Americans with government subsidies. Thus, this is a new potential revenue stream or Planned Parenthood.

Although government funding is a huge asset currently, the fact that Planned Parenthood is so controversial can actually turn this asset into a major threat. As politics continue to put pressure on cutting government funding, there have been Republican attempts to cute funding to health services, including Planned Parenthood. This could decimate the organization's budget. Thus, the organization should attempt to increase its other sources of revenue in order to be able to still operate if politics turn against it.

Competitive Marketing Analysis

The organization does not have a lot of competitors when it stands in this position. It is one of the largest sexual health services providers that is funded by government funds. Most of its competitors do not compare to its size or local delivery of services. In fact, the competitors are often single, small medical clinics and offices that do not operate on such a large scale basis. These competitors do not have the capability to attract such large sources of government funding or public donations, as they fail to receive such national coverage. Most of such clinics are thus operating on much smaller budgets compared to Planned Parenthood, which has the potential to impact their overall quality of care because they do not have the resources that Planned Parenthood does. Thus, it is strong in its position.

However, if the politic tide turns against the organization because of the controversy surrounding it and the financial crisis, there will be a huge opportunity for other clinics to take away from that power. Essentially, Planned Parenthood's massive stock of resources is what give it such a strong competitive advantage in the first place. Yet, if the government funding is taken away or significantly cut, these resources drastically diminish. The research claims that "the amount of money that could be lost by pushing Medicaid patients into other clinics is substantial" (Marcotte, 2011). Although Planned Parenthood does receive millions of dollars annually in donations, these alone are not enough for the organization to sustain itself without government funding. The main competitors of Planned Parenthood will really only get a stronger advantage if the government cuts its funding because the organization will not stop offering abortion services. Thus, there is always a potential for Planned Parenthood to loose its competitive advantage because of government restrictions on funding.

Identification of Stakeholders

There are several stakeholders involved. First, the 27,000 staff members and volunteers are one of the biggest stakeholders. Their job depends on the money from government and public donations. For the paid staff, their income comes directly from government funding and public donations. Without public donations, their jobs may be at risk. Thus, staff has a desire to provide quality healthcare service to patients so that they protect the interest of their own positions. If staff did not provide quality health services, their collection of donations would lower, therefore potentially threatening their own income.

The men and women in the community who utilize the organization's services are also clear stakeholders. Without available Planned Parenthood clinics, many in the community would suffer because they would not have access to their health needs. Most of these people are considered low income and do not have other alternative choices for receiving the type of quality care Planned Parenthood provides at such cheap costs. In fact, most of the services provided are free, which help ensure that all members of the community have access to quality service, no matter if they are rich or poor.

Ultimately, the American public in general is also stakeholders. Planned Parenthood provides contraceptive services that help prevent unwanted pregnancies that end up costing the healthcare system in millions. Without such services, the healthcare system may end up clogged dealing with prenatal costs of mothers who did not plan their pregnancy and thus may have increased risk for various birth disorders and conditions. The healthcare system would also have to support such children for their entire lives, which is a huge drain on public tax funds. Overall, Planned Parenthood's preventative and contraceptive services help take a huge burden off of tax payers in the long-term.

Overview and Assessments of Services

Planned Parenthood provides a wide arrange of health services for the community, with a predominate number of its patients seeking sexual health services. Various forms of birth control are the top service provided by the organization. In fact, contraception appointments account for over 34% of the total services provided annually by Planned Parenthood (Planned Parenthood, 2013). The next biggest service provided by Planned Parenthood is the testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, an additional 41% of patients served are for issues related to sexually transmitted diseases (Planned Parenthood, 2013). Still, the organization does even provide cancer screening. In fact, 10% of the services provided in 2012 were cancer screenings (Planned Parenthood, 2013). Thus, the services provided are not always related to sexual health.

Demographics Served

The demographics served by the organization are quite varied. There are over five million people served a year (Richards, 2007). Roughly 25% of the patients served are under 19 years old (Richards, 2007). This makes the way services are provided crucial because when working with minors, staff must follow all federal and state guidelines. Some services can not be serviced without consent of a guardian, depending on state laws. Additionally, most patients do not have health insurance and are often at or below the poverty line. This severely limits the revenue coming in from patients providing donations at the time of services. However, Planned Parenthood believes that "no American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition" (Halloran, 2011). Thus, many services are offered for free.

Financial and Operational Outcomes

The organization is a non-profit organization, and thus profits are rotated back into the operations. Still, the organization does bring in money in donations outside of government funding. This is what allows the organization to help provide its facilities with the proper equipment and staff training.

(Planned Parenthood, 2013)

The organization is also funded by government funds. Overall, the government has spent $327 million between 2002 and 2008 (Halloran, 2011). This funding for sexual services began in 1970 after then president Nixon signed the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act. Title X of that Act is what provides the bulk of the government funding given to Planned Parenthood. Therefore, "for more than four decades, the federal government has subsidized family planning programs that provide contraceptive and related health and family services to millions of low-income women and men" (Halloran, 2011).

In 2011, there were major threats to this funding. The Pence Act was introduced that would dramatically cut federal funding (Marcotte, 2011). Although it did not pass, it is clear that the volatile politics of this current financial recession do put Planned Parenthood in a position of weakness. Planned Parenthood has said "unfortunately, the story does not end there. The extremists behind the efforts to bar Planned Parenthood health centers from federal funding lost that fight -- but they were able to use the budget fight to force new burdens on women seeking abortion services in Washington, DC" (Planned Parenthood, 2014).… READ MORE

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