Strategic Plan

SMHS is on an exciting journey of change and growth, with a clear direction for the future and strong commitment to achieving our vision of excellent health care, every time.

The catalyst for change came during 2025 with the appointment of a new Chief Executive, a refresh of the SMHS Board as the terms of multiple long serving members expired, and the conclusion of the previous five-year strategic plan. The Board and Executive have a shared commitment to leading SMHS with strategic and collaborative decision making and visible leadership.

Separately, SMHS has partnered with global healthcare leader Virginia Mason Institute (external site) to build the SMHS Improvement Method and shape our journey to become a world-class leader in continuous healthcare improvement. Our partnership is helping us build our own unified, future-focused system that empowers every member of SMHS to contribute to excellence.

The SMHS Improvement Method is a long-term investment in our people, our culture and our future. It is about creating a shared way of learning and leading where everyone – across every site and portfolio – can grow through tailored programs, ways of working and leadership development. It is a long term, strategic investment to align our daily work with our vision, standardise processes, reduce waste and variation, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

We are in the process of developing our new strategic plan and while that is happening, we have consolidated our efforts and are driving shared improvements across SMHS with clearly defined priorities and actions.

Everything we do at SMHS is for our patients

We want to deliver care that is safer, more consistent and better for every patient.

Our focus is on making SMHS collectively one, locally led – working together better across the health service to deliver high-quality care for our community.

We remain committed to achieving our vision of excellent health care, every time in line with our current strategic priorities:

	Excellence in the delivery of safe, high quality clinical care
	Provide a great patient experience
	Engage, develop and provide opportunities for our workforce.
	Strengthen relationships with our community and partners
	Achieve a productive and innovative organisation which is financially and environmentally sustainable

Download the outgoing SMHS Strategic Plan 2020–2025 (PDF 4MB).