Goal Setting to Increase Quality in a Hospital

Hospital goal setting is the process of identifying measurable objectives that a health care facility wishes to attain. Some goals are financially oriented, while other goals increase the quality of services provided to patients and their families.

Identification

• Improving the quality of a hospital begins by identifying areas of deficiency to determine what needs improvement. Administrators brainstorm goals by identifying and envisioning how certain processes, procedures or outcomes will function in the future.

Function

• Management sets goals a means to steer a hospital towards a desired outcome. Goals are conceptual until acting plans make them tangible. According to "Entrepreneur," it is best to set measurable goals because managers can evaluate these goals for progress and benchmark them to ensure the action plan was successful.

Types

• Goals to increase quality have many implications in the hospital world. Quality may relate to the types of medical services provided to patients, the level of competency of the medical staff and even the quality of the food that the hospital serves. The more specific the goal is, the greater the chances are that hospital staff can reach that goal.