Before you create any goal for quality improvement, consider the framework you’ll use to set the goal, plan its course, and evaluate success.

A SMART aim is an effective tool in the healthcare model for improvement that keeps your evaluative focus on the system you’re using to work toward, achieve, and evaluate goals.

What is a SMART aim?

SMART is a tool that guides the success of quality improvement goals. With a SMART aim, you use a simple, repeatable process to identify a clear goal and an actionable plan. SMART aims ensure that all team members are on the same page when it comes to identifying aims and achieving them.

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. When you use these five points to create an aim, you set yourself and your team up for success.

How to create a SMART aim

First, like with any goal, you must clarify your intention. What do you want to accomplish? When the goal is clearly defined, you and your team know exactly what you’re working toward. This makes your chance of success much greater than if you had a vague goal or if team members had varying definitions of success.

Let’s go down the list point by point.

  1. Specific. This is the “who, what, where” of your aim. This is where your desired outcome is made clear. You should define the specific targets you’ll be working with or evaluating, such as the specific population, demographic, or medical groups or practices that you will evaluate. Clearly identify this “who, what, where.” Be as specific as possible.
  1. Measurable. You can’t evaluate what you don’t measure. To ensure your aim is measurable, define your evaluation points by specific numbers, percentages, or other numerical data. This way, you can track changes objectively and use data to evaluate the success of the project or goal.
  1. Achievable. Your aim must be achievable. If you set a goal and believe that it’s impossible or out of reach, adjust your aim. Whether the aim is outside of capabilities, or you foresee major roadblocks that might occur, adjust your goal so that it’s attainable.
  1. Relevant. Your aim should be relevant to the bigger picture or overarching goals of your team. If your goal is not relevant, your team may not try to reach it or be able to reach it. A relevant goal is valuable to the team and motivates them to keep moving forward.
  1. Timely, or time-bound. Your goal must have a completion date. We’ve all worked on projects with a vague deadline or no deadline at all. What happens next? Work gets busy, other high-priority projects come into play, and the projects without a deadline get pushed off the plate. Just like Parkinson’s Law states: goals without time restraints will expand to fit the timeframe allocated. If your aim is time-bound, it will get completed.

By using the SMART method, you can simplify and standardize the process you use to set quality improvement goals, plan for success, make adjustments, and repeat the process as needed to achieve goals and improve outcomes.