ironment is inextricably linked to quality. The definition of quality in health care has evolved over time from an initial focus on the technical aspects of quality to a renewed emphasis on levels of excellence produced and documented in the process of patient care. Under the aegis of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), quality is defined as the degree to which patient care services increase the probability of desired outcomes and reduce the probability of undesired outcomes given the current state of knowledge (Katz and Green, 1997).
The role of HRM in ensuring that these standards are met and each of the factors which JCAHO identifies as essential are addressed, is increasingly important. It is this function of HRM that will be discussed in this report. Issues to be examined include the overall importance of PM in strategic HRM, the rationale for implementing PM, the advantages, disadvantages, tasks, and goals of PM, and the relevance of PM in the specific environment created by hospitals. The literature will be examined to demonstrate that performance management has evolved as one of the critical tasks of human resource management in this particular work setting.
The JCAHO outlined twelve factors that determine the quality of patient care and define these factors as dimensions of performance. Specifically, these nine dimensions are:
. Appropriateness, or the degree to which care is
relevant to the patient's clinical needs;
. Availability, or the degree to which the appropriate
care is available to meet patient needs;
. Continuity, or the degree to which the care is
coordinated among practitioners, between organizations,
. Effectiveness, or the degree to which the care is
provided in the correct manner to achieve desired outcomes.
. Efficacy, or the degree to which care accomplishes
. Efficiency, or the ratio of outcomes for a pati...