AMPA☆

Strategic planning and utilization of the recommendations from the 2003 air medical leadership congress 

Strategic planning is an important endeavor for all organizations. This type of planning is not done just once but must be done every few years to ensure proper focus and direction for the organization. Strategic planning for associations involved in air medical transport includes items specific to the association and goals for the AMT industry.

The 2003 Air Medical Leadership Congress, developed and led by Frank Thomas, MD, et al, should assist all associations in setting goals for their contribution to the AMT community. This congress was an industry summit that involved leaders from all disciplines of AMT and was developed in an attempt to understand and gain consensus on how to address many of the important issues currently facing the industry. The findings and recommendations were published in the May/June 2004 issue of Air Medical Journal (Thomas F, et al. The 2003 Air Medical Leadership Congress: findings and recommendations. AMJ 2004;23:20-36).

The categories addressed by the congress included safety, medical care, cost/benefit, and regulatory/compliance. The three main topics discussed under safety were crew health, competition, and job satisfaction. Clinical practice, critical care transport, and training and skill retention were the general medical care topics. The recommendations concerning cost/benefit included costs, data, public awareness and education, reimbursement, alternative funding, and system integration. Lastly, the regulatory/compliance issues thought to be most important were standards and accreditation, compliance, and access to care and federal aviation regulations.

This comprehensive document includes input from all disciplines and organizations involved in AMT. I suggest that each association consider the recommendations of the congress when developing their strategic plan.

This past September AMPA had a board retreat, the main goal of which was strategic planning. During this retreat we revised our mission and vision statements and our values. Using components of the vision statement, we drafted goals and action items. In an effort to prioritize our goals, we considered the benefit, effort, and strategic value for each goal and assigned a value to each. The total score of the combination of benefit, effort, and strategic value for each goal was determined. The highest score represented the goal that would have the highest priority.

The goals address issues specific to AMPA, such as membership and service enhancements. In addition, many of the goals affect the AMT industry and include safety, utilization review, enhanced educational endeavors, the development of clinical guidelines, and the promotion of trusting, collaborative relationships.

The AMPA board believes that safety is the most important goal. One of our action items to attain this goal is to commit financial support to safety education. AMPA will provide $3000 each year to support a keynote safety lecture at AMTC. Our intention is that this be the keynote lecture on the first or second day of the conference. AMPA is committed to fund this sum each year, and our hope is that it will enable the AMTC Educational Committee to attract well-known safety experts whose knowledge can benefit our entire community. We welcome any collaboration and commitment from other associations, operators, or vendors who are interested. The more annual contributions that are obtained, the more productive and successful this safety lectureship will be.

If you or your association, organization, or company is interested in collaborating with AMPA on this endeavor, please contact Pat Petersen, AMPA executive director, at (801) 263-AMPA (2672) or ppeter1111@aol.com.