Clarify Aims

Going from General Aims to Specific Aims

Task

Your team must now refine the general aims. To do this, you’ll add an expectation of time to achieving the aim and define the inpatient subpopulation in question, following the SMART criteria:

Two examples of converting a general aim to a more specific and time-limited aim are:

General aim 1: Substantially improve the discharge process for hospitalized patients.
Is converted to :
In six months, 90% of patients discharged from the hospitalist service will have a phone call to the follow-up clinician (outlining the postdischarge issues) prior to discharge.

General aim 2: Decrease 30-day readmissions
Is modified to:
By January 2009, the 30-day readmissions for patients discharged with a principal diagnosis of heart failure will decrease by 50%.

Progress toward core aims should be tracked, trended, and publicly reported in run charts (see Track Performance, with frequent reiteration of the ultimate goals.