The importance of strategic planning

Stephen A. Dickens, JD, MAEd, FACMPE, vice president of medical practice services at SVMIC, addresses a common challenge for physician leaders: finding time for long-term planning when daily demands already feel unmanageable. In this clip, he explains why carving out time to think strategically isn’t optional — it’s essential.

“It’s one of those things that, you know, making the case is as simple as: Do you want to continue to be in practice? Do you want to continue to provide quality patient care?” Dickens says. He frames strategic planning as a necessary, if sometimes uncomfortable, part of sustaining a successful practice. “We all have to do a lot of things that we don’t like to do to get the result we want.”

For practices feeling stretched thin, Dickens offers a blunt reminder: “I don’t have time to not make the time.” Ignoring long-term planning, he warns, only lets problems grow. “A day turns into a week, turns into a month, and you’ve let what might have been something you could have dealt with now snowball into something that you can’t deal with.”

He urges both administrative and physician leaders to prioritize what matters most — keeping the practice open, patients cared for, and staff engaged. “Just getting through the day doesn’t deal with any of those things,” he says. “It’s like not having your car serviced. It’s going to come back to bite you.”