Healthcare & Hospital Information: SMART Goal Setting For Supply Chain & Materials Management
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HEALTHCARE INFORMATION: “SMART” HEALTHCARE SUPPLY CHAIN GOAL SETTING
By: Dennis Stewart, Streamline Savings _________________________________________________________________________________________ The success of a healthcare supply chain department can be attributed to how “SMART” their goals are. This has nothing to do with intellect, but rather the development of a plan which incorporates a defined process or methodology that will help insure the successful implementation of a hospital’s desired results. It does not matter whether the goal relates to safety, image, profits, or patient satisfaction. The process of establishing and identifying goals and integrating them into a SMART plan should be consistent.
S - Specific: Your goal should be specific, detailed and unambiguous, no matter if it's big or small. The
goal should state the exact level of performance expected.
M - Measurable: Create meaningful benchmarks or milestones to help you measure your progress
towards achieving your goal. Staff should be able to observe and measure their progress.
A - Attainable: Identify barriers (actual and perceived); overcome these barriers by cultivating skills and
adopting attitudes that will help you reach your attainable goals.
R - Relevant: Your goal needs to be realistic and beneficial. T - Time: Set target dates and deadlines for your goals and milestones.
Specific: Generally goals are related to one or more of the following: making, improving, reducing, saving, or
increasing something. The “something” can be profits, customer/patient satisfaction, sales, effectiveness, products, services, image, processes, results, relationships, risk, expenses, competition, time, money, space, or energy. A goal is specific when it is detailed, unambiguous, and provides a description of what exactly is to be accomplished. A specific goal is focused, and is easily understood by all hospital staff members that will be involved in its achievement. It should be written so that it can be easily and clearly communicated. A specific goal will make it easier for those writing objectives and action plans to address the following questions: Who is to be involved? What is to be accomplished? Where is it to be done? When is it to be done? Why is it important? Which items/standards? How will it be understood?
NOTE: The “S” in SMART can also incorporate systematic, synergistic and significant.
HEALTHCARE INFORMATION: “SMART” HEALTHCARE SUPPLY CHAIN GOAL SETTING
By: Dennis Stewart, Streamline Savings _________________________________________________________________________________________
Measurable: A goal for a Supply Chain Department is measurable if it is quantifiable, and understandable
by the hospital staff. Measurement is accomplished by first obtaining or establishing base-line data. It will also have a target toward which progress can be measured, as well as benchmarks to measure progress along the way. A hospital’s goals should measure staff or departmental outcomes, not activities. Goals should challenge people to do their best, but they need also be achievable. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and employees experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs them on to instill the continued effort that is required to reach the goal. A measurable goal will answer questions such as: • • • How much? How many? When? NOTE: The “M” in SMART can also incorporate meaningful, memorable and motivating.
Attainable: There must be a realistic chance that a goal can be accomplished, by the staff that you have.
This does not necessarily mean that goals need to be easy to obtain. Rather, a goal should be challenging, but explained in a way that will “reward” your staff. The goal should be set by or in concert with the department or employees responsible for its achievement. The hospital's leadership, and where appropriate its stakeholders, should agree that the goal is important enough for staff to be recognized as participants, and that appropriate time and resources will be focused on the implementation of the goal. Your staff should have the skills to develop the attitudes, abilities, and capacities to reach them. They should begin to see previously overlooked opportunities to bring their department closer to the achieving the goal. An attainable goal should also allow for flexibility. If a goal is perceived as impossible to achieve, your staff may not even try to accomplish it. Assume that your staff is reasonable! Achievable goals motivate hospital employees and impossible goals demotivate them. Goals should be monitored and a goal that can no longer be achieved should be altered or abandoned. NOTE: The “A” in SMART can also incorporate action, accountability, acumen and authority.
HEALTHCARE INFORMATION: “SMART” HEALTHCARE SUPPLY CHAIN GOAL SETTING
By: Dennis Stewart, Streamline Savings _________________________________________________________________________________________
Relevant: Goals should be appropriate to and consistent with the mission and vision of the hospital. The
goal should be perceived as pertinent and have meaning to achieve motivation and an emotional connection. Staff needs to develop an attitude that the goal (whether it is related to safety or saving time or money) is relevant to doing a good job (and possibly saving a job-which could be their own job!). Each goal adopted by the organization should be one that moves the organization toward the achievement of its vision. Relevant goals will not conflict with other organizational goals. It is important that all short-term goals be relevant (e.g., consistent) with the longer-term and broader goals of the organization. Goals need to pertain directly to the performance challenge being managed. NOTE: The “R” in SMART can also incorporate realistic, reasonable, resonating, results,
rewarding, responsible, reliable, and remarkable.
Time: A goal must be bound by time, and it should have a starting and ending point. The goal should have
some intermediate target points at which progress can be assessed, evaluated, and possibly modified. Limiting or targeting the time in which a goal must be accomplished helps to focus effort toward its achievement. The timeframe should be explained in a way that creates a practical sense of urgency and importance, or results in tension between the current reality and the vision of the goal. Without such tension, the goal is unlikely to produce a relevant outcome. Consider an expert on motivational skills if the goal is that important to the hospital. Motivational experts may be able to instill a “team” concept, or help with the age-old problem of “teaching olddogs, new tricks”. NOTE: The “T” in SMART can also incorporate timely, tangible and thoughtful.
**************** Summary: The concept of developing SMART goals can be implemented for a hospital and its departments, as well as individual staff members. It is also critical for ensuring good communication between employees and supervisors so there are no surprises during employee performance evaluations. SMART goals make for smart organizations. Hospitals that conquer the “art” of setting SMART goals will have goals that are attainable, measureable, clear, un-ambiguous, and the first step in achieving realistic success. A Goal of reducing costs by 10% may be WISE, but it also needs to be SMART. By: Dennis Stewart, Streamline Savings, LLC
Please direct comments or questions to: [email protected]
www.linkedin.com/in/dennisstewart1
By: Dennis Stewart, Streamline Savings _________________________________________________________________________________________ The success of a healthcare supply chain department can be attributed to how “SMART” their goals are. This has nothing to do with intellect, but rather the development of a plan which incorporates a defined process or methodology that will help insure the successful implementation of a hospital’s desired results. It does not matter whether the goal relates to safety, image, profits, or patient satisfaction. The process of establishing and identifying goals and integrating them into a SMART plan should be consistent.
S - Specific: Your goal should be specific, detailed and unambiguous, no matter if it's big or small. The
goal should state the exact level of performance expected.
M - Measurable: Create meaningful benchmarks or milestones to help you measure your progress
towards achieving your goal. Staff should be able to observe and measure their progress.
A - Attainable: Identify barriers (actual and perceived); overcome these barriers by cultivating skills and
adopting attitudes that will help you reach your attainable goals.
R - Relevant: Your goal needs to be realistic and beneficial. T - Time: Set target dates and deadlines for your goals and milestones.
Specific: Generally goals are related to one or more of the following: making, improving, reducing, saving, or
increasing something. The “something” can be profits, customer/patient satisfaction, sales, effectiveness, products, services, image, processes, results, relationships, risk, expenses, competition, time, money, space, or energy. A goal is specific when it is detailed, unambiguous, and provides a description of what exactly is to be accomplished. A specific goal is focused, and is easily understood by all hospital staff members that will be involved in its achievement. It should be written so that it can be easily and clearly communicated. A specific goal will make it easier for those writing objectives and action plans to address the following questions: Who is to be involved? What is to be accomplished? Where is it to be done? When is it to be done? Why is it important? Which items/standards? How will it be understood?
NOTE: The “S” in SMART can also incorporate systematic, synergistic and significant.
HEALTHCARE INFORMATION: “SMART” HEALTHCARE SUPPLY CHAIN GOAL SETTING
By: Dennis Stewart, Streamline Savings _________________________________________________________________________________________
Measurable: A goal for a Supply Chain Department is measurable if it is quantifiable, and understandable
by the hospital staff. Measurement is accomplished by first obtaining or establishing base-line data. It will also have a target toward which progress can be measured, as well as benchmarks to measure progress along the way. A hospital’s goals should measure staff or departmental outcomes, not activities. Goals should challenge people to do their best, but they need also be achievable. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and employees experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs them on to instill the continued effort that is required to reach the goal. A measurable goal will answer questions such as: • • • How much? How many? When? NOTE: The “M” in SMART can also incorporate meaningful, memorable and motivating.
Attainable: There must be a realistic chance that a goal can be accomplished, by the staff that you have.
This does not necessarily mean that goals need to be easy to obtain. Rather, a goal should be challenging, but explained in a way that will “reward” your staff. The goal should be set by or in concert with the department or employees responsible for its achievement. The hospital's leadership, and where appropriate its stakeholders, should agree that the goal is important enough for staff to be recognized as participants, and that appropriate time and resources will be focused on the implementation of the goal. Your staff should have the skills to develop the attitudes, abilities, and capacities to reach them. They should begin to see previously overlooked opportunities to bring their department closer to the achieving the goal. An attainable goal should also allow for flexibility. If a goal is perceived as impossible to achieve, your staff may not even try to accomplish it. Assume that your staff is reasonable! Achievable goals motivate hospital employees and impossible goals demotivate them. Goals should be monitored and a goal that can no longer be achieved should be altered or abandoned. NOTE: The “A” in SMART can also incorporate action, accountability, acumen and authority.
HEALTHCARE INFORMATION: “SMART” HEALTHCARE SUPPLY CHAIN GOAL SETTING
By: Dennis Stewart, Streamline Savings _________________________________________________________________________________________
Relevant: Goals should be appropriate to and consistent with the mission and vision of the hospital. The
goal should be perceived as pertinent and have meaning to achieve motivation and an emotional connection. Staff needs to develop an attitude that the goal (whether it is related to safety or saving time or money) is relevant to doing a good job (and possibly saving a job-which could be their own job!). Each goal adopted by the organization should be one that moves the organization toward the achievement of its vision. Relevant goals will not conflict with other organizational goals. It is important that all short-term goals be relevant (e.g., consistent) with the longer-term and broader goals of the organization. Goals need to pertain directly to the performance challenge being managed. NOTE: The “R” in SMART can also incorporate realistic, reasonable, resonating, results,
rewarding, responsible, reliable, and remarkable.
Time: A goal must be bound by time, and it should have a starting and ending point. The goal should have
some intermediate target points at which progress can be assessed, evaluated, and possibly modified. Limiting or targeting the time in which a goal must be accomplished helps to focus effort toward its achievement. The timeframe should be explained in a way that creates a practical sense of urgency and importance, or results in tension between the current reality and the vision of the goal. Without such tension, the goal is unlikely to produce a relevant outcome. Consider an expert on motivational skills if the goal is that important to the hospital. Motivational experts may be able to instill a “team” concept, or help with the age-old problem of “teaching olddogs, new tricks”. NOTE: The “T” in SMART can also incorporate timely, tangible and thoughtful.
**************** Summary: The concept of developing SMART goals can be implemented for a hospital and its departments, as well as individual staff members. It is also critical for ensuring good communication between employees and supervisors so there are no surprises during employee performance evaluations. SMART goals make for smart organizations. Hospitals that conquer the “art” of setting SMART goals will have goals that are attainable, measureable, clear, un-ambiguous, and the first step in achieving realistic success. A Goal of reducing costs by 10% may be WISE, but it also needs to be SMART. By: Dennis Stewart, Streamline Savings, LLC
Please direct comments or questions to: [email protected]
www.linkedin.com/in/dennisstewart1
