Essay On Operational Goals In Healthcare

Two types of goals exist: official goals and operational goals. Official goals are clear statements to define the purpose of the organization. These can be expressed as public statements or mission statements and strive to establish credibility, provide legitimacy and justify action of the organization. Operational goals reflect the actual intention of an organization, by implementing short-term goals to achieve the long-term official goals. These goals will provide specific actions intended to achieve the organization’s purpose (Meinhard, n.d). Let’s use the US public health system as an example.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has set out a strategic plan in hopes of achieving strategic goals within US. These goals
Additionaly, these goals allow for determine the burden of disease, DALYs and the effect disease can have on a population as it relates to the society as it whole. The process of healthcare goal setting in the US, is compose of governmental and legislative oversight to review data and identify problem areas within the system and establish health polices and fiscal year budgets for the purpose of providing services within the community.
Management’s role in establishing goals in the public health sector is limited. Given the official goal are well defined and established public health management is often left to work within the limitation of the HHS official goals. Operational goals do allow for management to support the official goals, though individual views on how these goals should be accomplish can cause disagreement among administrators.
Meanwhile, other healthcare sectors have more freedom to establish official goals and work within operational goals. The public sector does not allow for this liberty due in large part to public tax funding being allocated for operational public health