Professional Evaluation of Radiology Department Strategic Planning Practices at Teaching Hospitals in North East Nigeria

Strategic planning for radiology departments enables aligned equipment investment, workforce development, service expansion, and quality improvement that are essential for meeting the growing imaging demand in North East Nigerian teaching hospitals. The absence of formal strategic planning in many Nigerian radiology departments results in reactive equipment procurement, workforce shortages, and service quality stagnation. This study professionally evaluates radiology department strategic planning practices at teaching hospitals in Borno, Adamawa, and Gombe States. A professional management assessment design is applied, combining document review of available departmental development plans and annual reports with structured interviews of radiology department heads, hospital management team members, and senior radiology staff across five teaching hospitals. The evaluation examines whether departments have documented strategic goals, workforce development plans, equipment replacement schedules, quality improvement targets, and performance monitoring systems. A strategic planning maturity score is computed for each facility. Descriptive statistics are performed in SPSS. Available health management literature from North East Nigerian teaching hospitals identifies absence of formal strategic planning as the predominant management gap in departmental governance, with equipment procurement typically being budget-driven rather than strategy-driven. The NHS Planning Framework adapted for healthcare resource-limited settings and the WHO Strategic Health Planning Guide provide the professional reference. Findings are expected to reveal minimal formal strategic planning across all assessed departments. Recommendations address a regional strategic planning capacity building programme for North East radiology department heads and a collaborative inter-institutional radiology service development strategic framework. Keywords: strategic planning, radiology department management, teaching hospitals, North East Nigeria, healthcare management.