Setting Objectives in Healthcare Industry
The different types of healthcare organizations have different fundamental goals or objectives, and these different objectives can strongly affect the managerial activities of the organization. Also in order to put these objectives into the perspective of the health system, it is necessary to establish a definition of the system which has variously been defined as:
“an organization of interrelated and interdependent parts that form a unity” 1
“a set of parts coordinated to accomplish a set of goals” 2
Identification of Organizational Goals
The identification of goals has value to the organization in three major ways:
Orientation
Goal identification provides an organization with a certain direction, or orientation, that can and does help in the shaping of planning and policy directions.
Legitimization
Goals, both stated and unstated, have a way of providing their own legitimacy for an organization’s or individual’s activities. If a voluntary organization has a goal of providing health services to homebound individuals, it can, with great ease, legitimately extend its boundaries of operation to include a gamut of activities that are not thought of as traditional health services.
Measurement
One of the most common reasons for setting goals is measurement. Growth charts, scales, reports, and myriad other types of documentation make it clear that some predetermined goals should be met.
