A SWOT analysis is commonly used in companies to analyze internal and external positives and negatives (internally you have strengths and weaknesses in an organization, and externally you have opportunities and threats). This allows you to categorize what your internal group or organization can accomplish, as well as observe what the factors are outside the organization and how they will affect it.

For a healthcare organization, it is useful to define these different criteria because they will help you streamline your processes and care and identify areas of improvement.

For example, a certain healthcare organization may be extremely talented at preventative care and routine maintenance but not well equipped for emergencies. The SWOT analysis will address this and help the organization hire accordingly or reconfigure their services to better handle those situations. External factors will also be included, because there is a much greater opportunity for pediatric care if the practice is located in a suburban area, but you can address potential threats as well, such as developing large organizations, urbanization of the area, or an aging populace that has a different subset of medical needs.

The SWOT analysis is just a tool that is used to address potential positives and negatives internally and externally and appropriately plan your business needs.

The SWOT acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It consists of internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (threats and opportunities) that may affect a project, business venture or organization. Using a SWOT analysis is very beneficial towards helping an organization realize their market potential and market risk.

In a health care organization, the benefits of using a SWOT analysis are numerous, some of which include: 

1. A SWOT analysis helps discover new options for solutions to problems
2. Helping in the organizations decision making process and overall direction
3. Help in the prioritization of tasks and determination of capabilities
4. Reveal the competitive environment and potential pitfalls 

A SWOT analysis in a health care setting can help decision makers determine better and more efficient way to deliver their services and expertise. Some of the things that could be improved by conducting a SWOT analysis include:

1. Patient care and management
2. Workforce recruitment, retention and management
3. Patient data management