What are the best practices for conducting a social feasibility study for a healthcare program?

1 Define your scope and objectives

Before you start your social feasibility study, you need to clearly define the scope and objectives of your healthcare program, as well as the criteria for success and failure. This will help you focus your research and analysis on the most relevant and important aspects of the social context. You should also consider the scale, duration, and budget of your program, and how they may affect its feasibility.

2 Use the PESTLE framework

The PESTLE framework is a useful tool for conducting a comprehensive and systematic social feasibility study, as it covers six key dimensions of the external environment: political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental. For each dimension, you should identify and analyze the factors that may influence or constrain your healthcare program, such as policies, regulations, trends, norms, values, innovations, risks, and opportunities. You should also consider how these factors may interact or change over time, and how they may affect different groups or segments of the population.

3 Collect and analyze data

To conduct a reliable and valid social feasibility study, you need to collect and analyze data from various sources and methods, such as literature reviews, surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, case studies, or experiments. You should aim to gather both quantitative and qualitative data, as they can provide different insights and perspectives on the social feasibility of your healthcare program. You should also ensure that your data collection and analysis are ethical, transparent, and respectful of the rights and dignity of the participants and stakeholders.

4 Engage with stakeholders

Stakeholders are the individuals or groups who have an interest or stake in your healthcare program, such as beneficiaries, partners, funders, staff, policymakers, or competitors. Engaging with stakeholders is crucial for conducting a successful social feasibility study, as it can help you gain their input, feedback, support, and buy-in for your program. You should identify and map your key stakeholders, and involve them in different stages of your social feasibility study, such as defining the scope and objectives, designing the data collection and analysis methods, interpreting and validating the results, and developing recommendations and action plans.

5 Evaluate the results and make recommendations

The final step of your social feasibility study is to evaluate the results and make recommendations for your healthcare program. You should compare and contrast the data and findings from different sources and methods, and identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of your program. You should also assess the costs, benefits, risks, and impacts of your program, and how they may vary across different scenarios or assumptions. Based on your evaluation, you should make recommendations for improving or modifying your program, or for deciding whether to proceed or abort it.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?