Performance indicators: adding value to hospital management

In a complex environment, such as a large teaching hospital, managers must ensure that decision-making is optimized to promote efficiency and effectiveness. Information systems must be developed which enhance management functions based on an "action-led" rather than a "data-led" approach. In developing countries where, despite information system inadequacies, data volumes may be overwhelming, mechanisms must be devised for selective information reporting. At Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa the outcome of a strategic planning exercise provided an opportunity to link strategic goals and objectives to a limited set of performance indicators. Management skills are being developed in the use of these indicators to improve decision making and to guide action. Planned developments of this process include the incorporation of additional indicators, particularly those which will reflect quality of healthcare delivery and the extension of the system to similar institutions for purposes of comparison.