ABSTRACT
The healthcare industry is one of the most sacrosanct social and economic sectors of any nation’s development agenda due to the nature of services provided. In Africa, the process of managing healthcare service delivery to offer solutions to her healthcare challenges appears not to have yielded the expected outcomes. One of the observed reasons is a lack of strategic planning in the healthcare industry. This chapter examines the nature of the market and how a strategic planning process can be used to solve the challenges associated with marketing healthcare delivery in Africa. The ultimate goal of customer satisfaction (operational outcomes) begins with the creation of a vision – a mission – of a healthcare provider’s strategic plan. This chapter advocates for a strategic healthcare plan that is flexible and able to respond to the changing dynamics of the environment. With the adoption of strategic planning, Africa should have better healthcare delivery outcomes in the years to come.
