Measuring performance

What we cannot measure, we cannot manage. That is a proven adage, so have you ever wondered what healthcare report card will look like ? Or for that matter, if it is even possible to create such a report card and yet keep it simple?

In Healthcare we usually collect a lot of data related to different aspects of the business. Everything from clinical quality to outcomes and patient satisfaction is measured. On average any hospital in the US tracks over 100 indicators every year to gain insight into their practice, patient preferences and overall business. So creating a common report card that would work for even a handful of hospitals can become a tedious task.

Healthcare Report Card

Managment guru Tom Peters has created a healthcare report card to measure the state of US healthcare. He grades the overall system on 19 metrics or parameters. The beauty of this report card lies in it’s simplicity. The metrics have been chosen very carefully and the grading system is straight out of an elementary school test. The idea is to create a performance picture that is easy to understand and interpret.