Metrics Considered When Improving Quality Healthcare Services

Measuring Outcomes, Assessment, and Research

Health leader measures and metrics for assessment and evaluation of effectiveness, efficiency, performance, efficacy, and quality

Area of measurement

Specific measurement items

Business value (financial)

Activity-based costing

Return on investment and cash flow

Value of employee

Professional development

Satisfaction and retention of employee

Learning and growth value

Time to develop new services

Improvement of quality

Value of customer

Satisfaction of patients

Clinical outcomes

The four areas are given focus by senior management of health care systems, to measures past and current operational performances plus the progress towards attaining future organizational goals (Grigoroudis et al., 2012). The measures mentioned under the health leaders provide additional details concerning the underlying factors and interdependencies that affect the overall performance. Thus, this balanced scorecard tool concerns itself with the continuous and total management of quality. Hospitals are forced to use the Six Sigma process to measure the important things for the business such as mortality, quality, employee and customer satisfaction.

In health care, emphasis on the four areas of performance allows managers to access intangible assets affecting the organization's bottom line such as clinical processes, staff skills, loyalty, and the satisfaction of patients. By doing so, an organization's performance is measured against its strategic objectives while giving focus on building capabilities to achieve objectives. Moreover, behavioral changes are encouraged, and this aims at attaining corporate strategies (Berenson et al., 2013). Measures and metrics for assessment and evaluation of the health organization

Area of measurement

Specific items of measurement

Structure

A feature of the organization or clinician is described, which is relevant to the capacity to provide the care such as a number of beds, nurse to the patient role.

Outcome

Health status of the patient after receiving services from the hospital.

Evaluates care quality to the extent of health care services having an influence on the likelihood of a patient's desired outcomes.

They include traditional survival measures (mortality), disease incidence (morbidity).

Process

Is linked to procedures and treatments known to improve the health status of patients or prevent future complications or health conditions.

Reflect on professional standards of care that need to be backed with evidence.

Is service provided to patients consistent with routine daily care of clinics?

Access

Patient's ability to obtain timely and appropriate health care

Cost

Patient assesses services provided by health plans and the overall performance of providers in the plan's network.

Patient experience

Aggregate reports of patients concerning their observation of and participation in the health care facility.

Interpersonal care aspects.

Clarity and accessibility of information provided by doctors, to how quickly appointments are made for patients with those cases that are urgent.

The listed measurement metrics help organizations to improve the patient's health. This is possible preventing the underuse, overuse, and misuse of health care services and ensuring patient safety is achieved. Secondly, it helps in identifying the things that work and those that do not work as a drive to improvement. The measures also hold health care providers and insurance plans accountable for providing quality health care. Therefore, consumers are also enabled to make informed choices when it comes to choosing their preferred health care plans and institutions (Neiger et al., 2012).

These quality metrics of health organization are relevant for consumers to identify with the institutions that will meet their desired goals, which is to get better. It is necessary for health agencies to identify with these metrics because it reflects more of their image and quality of providing services to their patients and communities. Health organizations rely on such performance metrics because it gives them an understanding and direction of how their stakeholders are working to attain mission and vision of the organization. It is through these measures that patients can receive proper diagnosis and care.