Use of Q Methodology by Public Relations Practitioners for Strategic Hospital Planning

Abstract

This case study demonstrates how public relations practitioners can apply Q methodology to strategic planning activities in health care settings. Utilizing planning activities which took place in an Indiana hospital in 1993 (and given the fictional name of Riverbend Hospital for this study), practitioners arrived at three stakeholder sets of perceptions concerning health care reform fort he hospital. These perceptions then became the focus of the strategic plan (corporate objectives) created by the hospital's administrative staff in 1994. The authors suggest that Q methodology is a research technique that can be employed successfully by public relations practitioners in finite strategic planning environments.