Summary
The performance of every organization is determined by the achievement of its goals. To evaluate the efficiency of an institution, the focus should be on the strategic objectives. Operations analysis enables the entity to understand and detect challenges that hinder the corporation from attaining the desired outcome. When the specific functional areas are analyzed, it becomes easier to adjust the operations needed to enhance quality and reliability.
The increasing need to provide efficient and effective healthcare services to the patients has made hospitals develop methods by which they can examine the effort made. The operational metrics commonly used to measure the overall organization’s performance are staff-to-patient ratio, patient wait time, room turnover, the average number of patient rooms in use at one time, and communication between health professionals and clients. These measures allow the health unit to monitor and optimize all the available processes to increase customers’ level of satisfaction (Palmer et al., 2017). They help determine areas for improvement in the sector to promote quality care.
Developing Metrics
Describing the Intended Results
This stage involves formulating the specific objective of the healthcare organization. The team must agree on the exact result to be measured; for example, if the goal is to reduce waiting time in the unit, the management must develop a clear description of the measurement.
Understanding Alternative Measures
Performance metrics have to be measurable as well as quantifiable, therefore, the hospital must evaluate how the results will be measured either directly or by other measures. If the objective cannot be examined directly, the following measurable components can be applied; input, process, output, or outcome.
Selecting the Right measure for the Objectives
This phase entails overviewing the first steps to identify potential measures then the most appropriate is selected. The chosen metric must indicate how the state of the strategic objective in terms of improvement, constant, or worsening.
Defining Composite Indices as Needed
This helps in analysis in cases where the indicator cannot provide meaningful information on organizational performance. Composite indices would help to examine the outcome of intangible results like patient satisfaction and loyalty.
Setting Targets and Thresholds
The organization then defines both the bad and good performances and decides on how the data is used. The thresholds are determined by the desired outcome, either upper or lower, depending on the intended result.
Defining and documentation of the Selected Metrics
This is the last stage of development, where the organization clearly defines and documents essential information included in the performance scorecard. From this point, the matrices can be put into use by the institution.
The process of developing healthcare performance benchmarks includes defining the audience and use of the indicator. This involves determining the goals and reasons for measurement. The next step is consulting with healthcare affiliates and the advisory group to enhance the identification of their needs. The third stage entails choosing the specific area to measure according to the significance of the issue, potential improvement, or service-user well-being. Fourth, it encompasses achieving balance in measurement to satisfy the needs of various stakeholders in the hospital and, lastly, determining the mode of choosing the performance indicators to be applied.
The indicators can measure operational metrics like patient wait time by calculating the number of times clients have to wait between checking in and seeing a health provider. In the staff-to-patient ratio, the indicators show the capacity of workers, which can influence the quality of service provision. Similarly, room turnover measures can be indicated by the frequency of sick persons coming and leaving the health unit (Erickson & Rothberg, 2017). Concerning communication metrics, the benchmark illustrates how different parties within the facility communicate and interact to enhance quality care. Therefore, for the hospital to track progress and improve its operations, it should use the right key indicators that are well-defined, measurable and quantifiable.
References
Erickson, G. S., & Rothberg, H. N. (2017). Healthcare and hospitality: Intangible dynamics for evaluating industry sectors. The Service Industries Journal, 37(9-10), 589-606.
Palmer, R., Fulop, N. J., & Utley, M. (2017). A systematic literature review of operational research methods for modeling patient flow and outcomes within community healthcare and other settings. Health Systems, 1-21.