3.5 Example: Good – Better - Best

Good

"Improve access to mental health services for kids."

Too broad. No timeframe, population details, baseline, or measurable goal. Which kids? What kind of access? By when?

Better

"Improve access to behavioral health consults in our ED."

Narrowed focus to a specific setting, but still lacks measurement, timeframe, and a defined population. How will you know you improved?

Best ✓

"Increase the percentage of pediatric ED patients ages 10–17 receiving a behavioral health consult within 4 hours of request from 40% to 80% by December 2026."

Specific (consult within 4 hours), measurable (40% to 80%), time-bound (December 2026), and tied to a defined population. Meets all SMART criteria.

Emergency Physician

"Increase the percentage of adolescents (ages 12–17) presenting to the ED with suicidal ideation who receive a standardized risk assessment (Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale) within 60 minutes of arrival from 45% to 85% by September 2026."

Specific, measurable, time-bound, clinically actionable. Names the tool, the timeline, and the population.

EMS Team / Medical Director

"Decrease the percentage of youth (under 18) in behavioral health crisis transported to non-psychiatric-capable facilities from 60% to 20% within our regional EMS system by July 2026."

Addresses a safety gap with a clear population, measurable outcome, and timeline. Requires destination agreements and protocol development.

PECC

"Increase the percentage of pediatric patients (ages 10–17) who receive suicide risk screening at ED triage from 55% to 95% across all shifts by March 2026."

Targets consistency across shifts — a common and important gap. The “all shifts” language makes reliability explicit.

School Clinician

"Increase the percentage of students referred for behavioral health services who attend their first appointment within 30 days from 35% to 70% by the end of the school year (June 2026)."

Feasible, measurable, and meaningful for school context. Timeframe aligned to the school calendar.

Primary Care Team

"Reduce average time from behavioral health referral to first appointment for children ages 5–17 in our practice from 45 days to 20 days by June 2026."

Addresses access, which is the core PMHCA challenge. Measurable from existing referral and scheduling data.

Behavioral Health Staff

“Increase the percentage of pediatric patients receiving a documented safety plan at ED discharge following a behavioral health evaluation from 55% to 95% by June 2026, across all shifts at our institution.”

Focuses on a critical and measurable care gap. The “all shifts” language ensures the aim targets reliability, not just average performance.

Hospital Leadership / CMO

"Reduce average ED boarding time for pediatric behavioral health patients from 14 hours to under 8 hours by December 2026, as measured by EMR-reported disposition-to-departure time."

Board-level metric with clear measurement methodology. Signals organizational commitment to improvement.