New Year Planning Strategies for 2026: The Executive Roadmap for Strategic Infection Prevention
- Carole W. Kamangu
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Written by Carole W. Kamangu
Why Infection Prevention Strategy Needs a C-Suite Reset
For years, infection prevention has been treated solely as a technical unit. But the reality is, it isn’t just a technical unit; it's a core pillar of your healthcare operations. It affects organization’s financial standing, operations and brand equity.
Over the past few years, leaders have seen how treating infection prevention as a regulatory compliance item creates major organizational risks. An optimized infection prevention strategy that allocates resources adequately and promotes forward-thinking through leadership support can effectively promote quality patient care and significantly reduce costs.
Our work has shown that sustainable infection prevention and control (IPC) programs require an organizational culture that encourages a continuous improvement mindset and alignment from the top down. Some of our proudest achievements were helping healthcare systems reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) by more than 30%, increase patient satisfaction by over 60% and achieving over $1million in cost savings in one quarter through leadership alignment, organizational engagement and targeted coaching. These success stories demonstrated the direct impact of strategic alignment on quality care, finance and mission-driven interventions.
Healthcare organizations are at a crossroads. In an unstable global economic climate, with employment challenges in some regions, for 2026 strategic planning, the focus must shift from merely assessing your IPC program to adopting the key executive behaviors that can transform infection prevention from a cost-producing department to a cost-saving strategic asset.
3 Strategic Focus Areas to Start Planning Now
Effective goal setting for the new year requires a sharp, executive-level focus that links the program's operations directly to organizational priorities. Here’s where to start your strategic planning:
Re-Evaluate Through the Lens of Risk and Cost
An important first step in strategic planning is always evaluation. Assess past achievements, challenges and resource needs. For 2026, the evaluation should not only be focused on risk prioritization but also cost avoidance and cost savings.
Your goal is to connect C-Suite’s priorities with infection prevention objectives through data showing how current resource utilization and IPC interventions demonstrate the need for mission-critical program improvements. This means asking specific questions:
What organizational challenge kept us from achieving our most impactful goals?
Where are we most exposed to regulatory risk?
How can we use existing data to predict how strategic investments in IPC-related healthcare operations will contribute to cost avoidance or savings per quarter?
Prioritize Organizational Alignment
Programmatic focus in infection prevention is essential, but to achieve organizational success, executive buy-in is crucial and can only be achieved through organizational alignment. In one of our recent polls, healthcare leaders in reported that one of their biggest goals was to gain leadership support. This is achieved by linking the IPC team's work to the big picture.
“We need our entire organization to understand the importance of practicing infection prevention daily and how it builds a culture of safety. It’s everyone’s responsibility." - Chief Nursing Officer of a Forward-Thinking Healthcare Organization
Our team guide clients in moving beyond simply setting team goals to using strategic thinking and tools to demonstrate that the IPC program's priorities are part of the larger strategic direction of the healthcare organization.
Implement with C-Suite Influence
Implementation is where strategy meets reality. Leaders across the organization should set clear, measurable, achievable goals (S.M.A.R.T. Goals) that are broken down into manageable, targeted steps. The true value of goal setting lies in how the empowered IPC team contributes to executive decision-making to benefit the organization as a whole.
“The only valid strategy is one that can be executed.” - quoted in Harvard Business Review
By empowering and supporting IPC leaders, you ensure that their critical insights shape major resource allocations and define the long-term direction of the healthcare organization.
Your Next Step: Adopt the Executive Playbook
The difference between reactive and strategic IPC is seen in leadership behavior. Our work, which is based on our IP PROPEL™ Framework, shows that sustained success requires specific actions from the C-Suite to align leadership, culture, resources, systems and risk mitigation.
We've summarized these critical actions into an executive-focused resource designed to help you assess your current strategy and identify areas for improvement.
This brief outlines the strategic behaviors that elevate infection prevention into a cost-saving advantage that enhances patient safety behaviors and protects your organization’s reputation.
Use it to:
Assess your current infection prevention strategy and identify opportunities for improvement.
Understand the strategic advantage gained by moving from a reactive to proactive mindset.
Review specific Strategic Leadership Moves that reinforce organizational alignment, achieve operational excellence, and enhance strategic decision-making within your organization.
Now you can incorporate this into your 2026 planning.
If you'd like to discuss how these behaviors apply to your organization and partner with us to help you achieve your goals, request a FREE 30-minute Insight Session.