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Clinical performance indicators: intolerance for variety?

Abhijit Basu1, Rosemary Howell, Deepa Gopinath

  • 1University Hospital of South Manchester, Wythenshawe, UK. babuabhijitbasu@googlemail.com

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance
|June 12, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Assessing National Health Service (NHS) hospital performance is challenging due to inconsistent clinical indicators. This study suggests using standardized activities for accurate hospital performance measurement.

Area of Science:

  • Healthcare Management
  • Clinical Performance Measurement
  • Hospital Administration

Background:

  • National Health Service (NHS) hospitals face continuous scrutiny regarding performance.
  • Independent bodies recommend clinical indicators for assessing non-financial hospital performance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To critically analyze the performance of a single UK hospital against recommended clinical indicators.
  • To elucidate the difficulties in measuring clinical performance within the NHS.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized 12 months of data presented to the Hospital Trust Board.
  • Included previous years' data where available for comparative analysis.

Main Results:

  • Hospital performance calculation proved extremely difficult due to complex ratios.
  • Lack of standardization in indicators led to ambiguous interpretations of performance (better, worse, or indifferent).

Conclusions:

  • Direct comparison with other hospitals was precluded due to a lack of similar analyses in existing literature.
  • Highlights the inherent inconsistency in performance indicators, cautioning against reward-rebuke systems.
  • Suggests using standardized, easily controlled activities or internal historical data for more reliable hospital performance measurement.
Abstract

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