Abstract
Strategic planning has become a common management tool used by senior leadership in healthcare facilities and can be a powerful tool for clinical nutrition managers seeking to position themselves and their teams as leaders in today's rapidly changing healthcare environment. Strategic planning is described, along with its application in the healthcare organization setting. The importance of aligning clinical nutrition and patient service program goals and objectives with the overall goals of the facility is described. Examples of clinical nutrition strategic plans that have been developed to help support their healthcare facilities' overall strategic plans are provided. Developing measurable outcomes that will help evaluate the success of the strategic plan is described.