Making SMART Goals Smarter for Physician Quality Incentive Compensation

Physician Leadership Journal

Making SMART Goals Smarter for Physician Quality Incentive Compensation

Enhancing SMART goals with additional mnemonics ensures physician quality incentives are fair, achievable, and relevant, especially when compensation is at risk.

March/April 2026 Vol. 13, No. 2 pp. 57–61 DOI: 10.55834/plj.6917907030

Abstract

When developing physician quality incentive compensation goals, using the additional mnemonics discussed in this article makes SMART goals smarter. With physician compensation at risk, these tools add depth to the SMART framework to ensure that quality incentive goals are fair to physicians, likelier to be achieved, and relevant to all parties.

TopicsQuality ImprovementPerformance