Productivity and performance: keys to survival for a hospital-based social work department

This is the concluding article in a series describing the evolution of a comprehensive accountability structure in the Social Work Department at the University of Minnesota Hospitals. The accountability structure is composed of five features: management by objectives, a time-oriented management information system, a set of standardized client problem definitions, specific service standards for client problems, and a comprehensive staff performance appraisal system. Utilization of information from the system by hospital and department administration, hospital clinic directors, department staff and users outside the hospital is described, as are the various direct and indirect impacts of the system on department functioning.