Business Contol and Measuring Performance

1

Introduction

With today's rapid healthcare reforms, the O&P practitioner's ability to quantify the quality of healthcare delivery and treatment cost-effectiveness is seminal to the future success of clinical practice. The evolution of total quality management in the manufacturing sector created concepts of quality control procedures. Today medical orthotics and prosthetics private practitioners assess and use outcomes measures as the principal mode of quality evaluation of healthcare delivery. All this thanks to the ever increasing amount of practitioners that enrol in the B.Tech Degree enabling them to improve on their professional capabilities in O&P practice.

The future of successful patient management (Fig. 1) will require routine control processes in the form of, good skills and abilities as a manager/supervisor, enough resources at your disposal, good organisational skills and motivation and commitment.

rehabilitation.

Figure 1: A whole set of factors feed into the likely success of a patient rehabilitation. (www.allaboutbusiness.com)

The O&P practice can benefit from objective documentation, data collection and outcomes measures if these tasks are performed in a routine and uniform manner; these practices can improve patient evaluation and measurement, aid in selecting the most appropriate appliances, help negotiate provider contracts, reinforce ethical practice management and minimize the risk of litigation.

Why is control so important? Planning can be done, an organisational structure can be created to efficiently facilitate the achievement of goals, and employees can be motivated through effective leadership. Control is important, therefore, because it's the final link in the management functions. It's the only way managers know whether organisational goals are being met and, if not, the reasons why. The specific value of the control function, however, lies in its relation to planning and delegating activities.

An effective control system ensures that activities are completed in ways that lead to the attainment of the organisation's goals. The standard that determines the effectiveness of a control system is how well it facilitates goal achievement. The more it helps managers achieve their organisation's goals, the better the control system.

2

Setting the right goals to measure against

Before I can discuss these steps, it's logical that control can only be implicated if certain standards of performance already exists. These standard of performance are evidently detailed in goals that are created in the planning process. Goals are used as a benchmark to measure performance against, thus I will have to look at the specific goals in Orthotics and Prosthetics private practice.

Goals are the foundation of planning. Goals give specific direction to managers. However, just stating goals or having employees accept stated goals is no guarantee that the necessary actions to accomplish those goals have been taken. The specific value of the control function, however, lies in its relation to planning and delegating activities.

Figure 2: The Planning - Control link

as described in the four basic functions of management.

(http://gmx.xmu.edu.cn)

As the old saying goes, "The best-laid plans often go awry." The effective manager needs to follow up to ensure that what others are supposed to do is, in fact, being done and that goals are, in fact, being achieved. In reality, managing is an ongoing process, and controlling activities provide the critical link back to planning (Figure 2). If managers didn't control, they'd have no way of knowing whether their goals and plans were on target and what future actions to take.

2.1: Goals setting and the value to an organisation

The words bring back the memory of my Primary school teacher who wanted the class to become better organised students. It's easy to think of goal setting as unnecessary and somehow demeaning. After all, O&P's have the intelligence and cohesiveness to function in day-to-day business. Why set goals formally?

Russell, M (2007) suggests that there are a number of advantages to formally setting goals and writing them down. First and foremost, formal goal setting allows you to estimate exactly what is needed to effectively pursue your goal. This allows a level of sophistication in goal setting that goes far beyond a list of ingredients for a simple brace or prosthesis. This will help you to reach for medium and long term goals that involve much more complexity than a mere grocery list.

So what are the components of formal goal setting? In my opinion, any effective goal setting procedure would have to include a means of estimating the time, effort, resources and tools necessary to accomplish the goal. This would be in addition to the overall goal itself.

It's important to realise why you are setting the goal in the first place. A goal is not just a dream written down on paper. A properly structured goal (Figure 3) can help you to see clearly and precisely how you can make that goal a reality.

Some people complain that they don't have the time to set goals. I argue that this is why they really should be setting goals. Formal goal setting can help you to focus on the time and effort needed to achieve your goals. Goal setting can also help you to find the time to work on your goals.

Figure 3: Formally setting goals that can succeed.

2.2: Motivation in small business

Of course, motivation is an important component of goal setting. I don't think that's really a problem here, because these are after all your goals and will benefit you. Goals in large organisations are famous for failing to motivate the workers or for being so far removed from the reality of day-to-day working conditions as to be highly unrealistic. Your O&P private practice goals however, are directly related to your life and personal