TOP 10 HOSPITAL PERFORMANCE METRICS
In the United States, the healthcare industry is one of the most relevant industries. For this purpose, policies and model undergoes various takes of changes. The essence of this assessment is to evaluate the performance of the healthcare industry and identify possible lapses in the system. The policies put in place by the government have spurn healthcare centers and hospitals to look into performance metrics and discover if they meet the recognized standards.
Hospital performance metrics are measures put in place to help medical organizations understand how it operates. An ideal hospital performance metrics must put into consideration all the relevant aspects of the organization. These measures must also be crucial towards achieving the goals of the organization. If there are instances that the organization desires ways to improve its performance, then, the performance metrics will go a long way to make it a reality.
ClearPoint Strategy identifies the various hospital performance metrics as:
Operations: This is an integral key in measuring hospital performance metrics. There are essential factors that must be put into consideration by hospitals when carrying out its operations. It is simply not enough that hospitals attend to patients. There must be provision for the equipment or items that will aid in patient care. Some of these factors include patient wait time, number of available beds, number of patients in a room, number of hospital staff and interpersonal relationship between staff and patients.
Finance: Every organization requires adequate finance for it to function appropriately. Whilst carrying out its operations, hospitals must not fail to account for its revenue and cost that accrues in the course of its operation. The necessary factors that are used to measure hospital performance metrics as it relates to finance include claims denial rate, employee wage, treatment charge, and insurance claims. These factors reveal if the hospital is financially responsible or not.
Communication: Just like every organization, hospitals require proper communication to facilitate its activities. It is very unlikely that hospitals will run effectively without the presence of communication between it and its patients. When patient derive satisfaction from the services of a hospital, it will speak highly of such a place. Furthermore, the number of media mentions also shows if hospitals are doing well or not. A good media report will project the hospital as an essential healthcare provider. If this is the case, then, it is a welcome development.
Internal activities: The internal activities of hospitals are also a performance metrics used is in assessing how it operates. There are certain factors that are essential in every hospital. These include the attitude of employees and patients. When employees are regularly trained on how to provide patience care, there is always a positive response in the organization. In the case, where employees are not trained regularly, it affects operational activities. So, internal activities of hospitals such as trainings of employees, mistake events, patient confidentiality, partnership with advocacy group speak volumes about how the hospital performs in its activities.
Public health: The way hospitals show concern over the health of the public is also used in measuring its performance. There are a countless number of ways that hospitals can show concern and administer treatment to the public. For instance, the number of immunizations given to children in a community. If a hospital cannot give good record about the number of children that has benefitted from its immunization programs, such hospitals will be said to perform badly. Public health also revolves around educational programs that are held in the community. The number of educational and sensitization programs that hospitals provide to the public is essential in measuring its performance.
Care: The hospital is essentially known to provide care to individuals who are in dire need of it. When it fails in this capacity, such hospitals will be considered to be unqualified to exist in the healthcare industry. Different factors are used in measuring care that hospitals provide for patients. A good example is medication error. The number of times that medication error occurs in a hospital determines its performance. Mistakes are inevitable in healthcare organization. This is why it comes as no surprise when there is a mistake in dosage, patient’s name or medication. But, how often these errors occur determines the hospital standard of operation. Other factors include patient follow-up and the number of staff and patients in the hospital.
Emergency: In emergency situations, how does the hospital act? The way hospitals respond in emergency situations determines if its performance is good or not. Some of the factors that show how hospitals perform in emergency situations is number of patients who are unable to see medical practitioners before they leave. In cases where patients are unattended to in the hospital, there is a need to be concerned. It is expected that hospitals will be readily available to attend to patients that come into the hospital environment. If this is not achieved, such hospital cannot be regarded as effective according to the emergency criteria for measuring performance.
DataPine enumerates some of the hospital performance metrics as:
Hospital readmission rates: This indicates how many patients are coming back to the hospital. Of course, a satisfied customer will always find reasons to come back to the hospital. In the same vein, patients who are not satisfied will not come back. If patients do not come back or refer others to your hospital, you are lacking the much-needed comfort and care associated with hospitals.
Medical equipment utilization: The utilization of medical equipment reveals a lot about hospitals. There may be equipment present in a hospital but it may not be effectively utilized. This will not speak well about the hospital and its activities.
Patient safety: Patients must be the center of all activities. This presupposes that hospital management is expected to prevent patient from coming in contact with any accident or incident in the hospital premises.
These are top ten (10) hospital performance metrics that are used to measure performance of hospitals in the United States.
https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/25-healthcare-metrics-kpis/
https://www.datapine.com/kpi-examples-and-templates/healthcare
