Content area
Abstract
Together with an health care organizations' (HCO) mission, vision, strategies and tactics, goals and objectives serve as the foundation elements for most major programmatic initiatives. In order to reach a single goal, several enabling or supporting objectives usually have to be met. In health care settings, this involves the time and talents of trained professionals who function more on a collegial basis than in the superior-subordinate relationships around which the MBO and SMART goal processes were originally developed. The following SMARTER objectives criteria take this important difference into account along with the substitution of the term objectives, which more accurately reflects the operational level of focus. The SMARTER objectives criteria are: 1. specific, 2. achievable, 3. relevant, 4. time bound, 5. engaging, and 6. rewarding. The presence of conflicting objectives also poses potential problems, as does a failure to provide appropriate feedback. To avoid these issues, physician executives should make sure that sufficient flexibility, intra-organizational alignment, and real-time feedback are built into the design process.