This paper presents the preliminary results from a study on the limits and possibilities of the strategic planning approach for local health organizations. A comparative analysis is developed between two experiences concerning the application of the strategic situational planning method (PES method) in the management of a health center and hospital. Questions include the following: difficulties with the use of the category actor in local health organizations; possibility of drafting a collective project based on the multiple rationalities existing in such organizations; possibility of improving communications processes with the use of the PES method; difficulties related to organizational culture; and low levels of responsibility, as well as difficulties pertaining to the method's complexity and the possibility of simplifying it, maintaining strategic situational analysis and improving organizations' managerial capacity.
Health Planning; Strategic Planning; Public Health
