Verified Document

Nursing Healthcare Balanced Scorecard Research Paper

Related Topics:

IntroductionPerformance scorecards provide a straightforward means of integrating metrics into a healthcare organization’s strategic planning. Scorecards are most effective when they have a clear purpose, identifying specific patient populations and outcome measures. According to Baker (2015), “savvy organizations select the best metrics to track that are appropriate to what the organizational staff members wish to measure,” which could include specific issues like patient vital signs or patient satisfaction survey outcomes (p. 224). Moreover, performance scorecards need to be simple, kept on a manageable scale so that the data gleaned can be readily communicated to inform organizational practices, policies, and procedures (Hansel, n.d.). The following performance scorecard includes three core categories including performance, quality, patient safety, and employee engagement, all while focusing on addressing the needs of a specific patient population: adults over the age of 65 who have been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes.

GOAL

TARGET

KEY STAFF

REVIEW FREQUENCY

JAN 2018

FEB 2018

MAR 2018

APRIL 2018

Performance

Readmission

15%

Monthly

25%

22%

23%

27%

Mortality

10%

Monthly

15%

10%

5%

10%

Quality

Lifestyle counseling

99%

Monthly

80%

82%

79%

82%

Complications

15%

Monthly

18%

22%

23%

19%

At-Home Testing

99%

Monthly

85%

89%

90%

92%

Patient Perceptions

90%

Every three months

90%

85%

89%

90%

Patient Safety

Equipment Failure

5%

Monthly

2%

5%

8%

10%

Voluntary Error Reports

10%

Monthly

5%

2%

6%

10%

Patient Error Reports

5%

Every three months

3%

8%

12%

8%

Employee Engagement

Survey data

90%

Every three months

85%

80%

82%

80%

Outcome Measures

Performance

The outcome measures for performance will include mortality rates within the patient population and readmission rates.

Quality

Performance outcomes for quality include number of patients receiving at-home testing equipment for self-monitoring, number of patients receiving lifestyle counseling and preventative care, complications related to Type II Diabetes, and patient perception of care.

Patient Safety

Patient safety outcomes include number of equipment and/or test failures, voluntary error reporting from staff, and patient-reported errors in care.

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement outcomes include surveys that can be quantified.

Driving Outcomes Measures

Driving outcomes measures requires a combination of leadership best practices and evidence-based practice with the patient population.

Performance

To drive outcomes measures in performance, nurses need to monitor several factors at once, including patient readmission rates and mortality rates within the patient population....

An additional indicator that would be important would be one derived from Medicare, such as total cost expenditures per patient. To drive outcome measures, it would be important to pay attention to the other performance metrics including those that address quality of care such as lifestyle counseling and preventative interventions for at-risk patients. The workplace environment, job characteristics, and institutional supports all contribute to measurable performance outcomes.
Quality

Driving outcomes measures to improve quality of care requires a dependence on evidence-based practice, a reinvigoration of nurse training, and additional indicators to monitor outcomes such as patient family surveys to evaluate their perceptions of care quality. Quality of life factors including mental health and social functioning would also be additional indicators nurses could use on a qualitative level, with quantitative indicators including vital signs measurements including BMI/weight-related issues and heart health measures. Another additional indicator would be to quantify numbers of direct patient referrals: the critical word-of-mouth marketing the healthcare organization depends on for its long term success and financial performance. Driving quality of care, nurse leaders can make changes to institutional policies, technologies, and job characteristics.

Patient Safety

Patient safety remains one of the easier outcomes measures to quantify. In addition to core indicators like equipment efficacy and error reporting, nurses can also drive outcomes through the implementation of a no-fault error reporting system, The no-fault error reporting system would encourage nurses to report errors immediately without fear of reprimand, allowing appropriate corrections to be made in a timely and honest fashion. Technology, organizational supports, and leadership drive patient safety outcomes.

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is known to be a “prerequisite for high performance,” (Lowe, 2012, p. 29). Engaged employees increase overall job satisfaction rates, which means higher morale, commitment, camaraderie, reduced absenteeism, and reduced turnover rates. Therefore, to properly measure employee engagement, it is critical to operationalize the definition and construct different survey instruments and means of measuring engagement outcomes. Having individual interviews with employees is helpful, but primarily yields case-by-case qualitative data that is difficult to input into the balanced scorecard. Preferable for snapshots of performance data and for communicating to hospital administrators would be simpler, more straightforward metrics of assessing employee engagement. Exit interviews, surveys, and online questionnaires that are shorter and which encourage employee responses to be honest and forthcoming would all help administrators measure employee engagement systematically over time.

Scorecard Advantages

Although it includes several more performance outcomes than would be required, this scorecard nevertheless does focus on only four main areas including employee engagement, patient safety, quality of care, and performance measures. Each of these is then broken down into sub-categories with clearly defined measurable outcomes. The benefits of using this particular balanced scorecard include the following.

1. Data-Driven. This scorecard depends on measurable, quantitative outcomes. Even the surveys with patients and employees require measurable data outcomes that can be used to inform company policies and practices. In the evidence-based practice landscape, having data-driven performance outcomes is crucial.

2. Consistent. This scorecard includes…

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Balance Scorecard Applications in Healthcare Organizations Balanced...
Words: 12912 Length: 40 Document Type: Essay

Balance Scorecard Applications in Healthcare Organizations Balanced Scorecard The Learning & Growth Perspective The Business Process Perspective The Financial Perspective Strategy Mapping General Perspective of Performance Management Performance Planning Ongoing Performance Feedback Employee Input Performance Evaluation & Review Performance Management in Healthcare Organizations Healthcare Organization as Learning Organization Principles of Performance Management in Healthcare Organizations Performance Measurement & Evaluation Methods Used In Healthcare Organizations Setting Up Performance Management Systems Dimensions and Approaches to Performance Management in Health Care Taken From the British National Health Service Induction Programs Performance Monitoring Personal

Quality Improvement in Health Care
Words: 1426 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

Furthermore, the VA hospitals are devoted to new research on Parkinson's disease in the development of surgical treatment for late-stage patients for whom medical therapy is no longer effective and development of new medications, which are more effective and have fewer side effects (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2001). In this way the VA's rehabilitation services structure assists in the transition of patients from one level to another level of

Healthcare Home for Veterans
Words: 1341 Length: 4 Document Type: Research Paper

Organizational Structure Mission, Vision and Key Values This organization will be a new healthcare organization / group home for veterans. The mission is to provide a safe and stable environment for veterans to recover from injury, surgery or trauma. The vision is an America where veterans feel valued, and where their service is repaid with the highest honor. The key external values of the organization are going to be healing, compassion, and

US Healthcare and the Potential Benefit the Balanced Scorecard
Words: 1274 Length: 2 Document Type: Research Paper

Healthcare system is large, spending accounted for 17% of the GDP in 2011 and was expected to increase (Kaplan & Porter, 2011). By 2014 this had risen to 17.5% of GDP, with a monetary value of $3 trillion, equal to $9,523 per capita, employing approximately 10 million people within the sector (CDC, 2016). The largest single costs are those associated with hospitals, accounting for 32.1% of all healthcare expenditure, providing

Internal Business Process Perspective Balanced Scorecard Turns
Words: 932 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Internal Business Process Perspective balanced scorecard turns attention aspects organization's operations possibility direct control managers employees. The balanced scorecard at Duke's Children Hospital In the context of a rapidly evolving society, the health care sector must also develop new mechanisms by which to keep up with the emergent changes and challenges. One example in this sense is represented by the implementation of business tools and techniques within the act of health

Religious Health Care As a Consultant We
Words: 1404 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Religious Health Care As a consultant we have identified some of the issues that need to be considered further by the consultant group and perhaps confer it with the governing board and the CEO, and I have discussed these issues to ensure the most critical issues of the Religious Health Care has in order of importance. These concerns must be addressed in order for there to be some changes to the

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now