Goodhart's Law in Healthcare: When Metrics Become the Mission

We explore Goodhart's Law and how chasing metrics can make them stop telling the truth.

Using the example of a nail factory, we demonstrate how optimizing for the wrong measurement leads to useless results.

We then apply this concept to healthcare, examining what happens when EBITDA becomes the primary target instead of patient outcomes, clinician wellbeing, and actual organizational health.

We discuss how in physical therapy, the human being—not the spreadsheet—should be the most important asset.