In biomedical research we often say “if you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything.” As many in leadership are learning, the complex nature of statistics can be used to obfuscate the truth.
The same is true for the burgeoning list of metrics that have spread across healthcare. Some organizations report on well over a hundred different metrics to track their performance. While these metrics are all intended to reveal important trends in your organization, too many have only a loose correlation with good outcomes.
For the leaders in the hospital C-suite, the question becomes how do you understand your hospital’s true performance? It is our impression that hospitals have exercised appropriate judgment in supply chain decisions and have a strong grasp of issues of appropriate staffing. It is therefore only a small margin that can be achieved by enhanced efficiency and cost reductions in these areas at most hospitals. But the clinical pathway itself still offers large opportunities for improvement. Providing care that results in better patient outcomes will ultimately reduce expenses more than it will reduce revenues. There aren’t a lot of short cuts here. Providers just have to provide more cost-effective care. With that in mind, our research has identified five metrics to use to track your hospital’s performance.
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[Editor's Note: This post originally appeared on MPA Healthcare Solution's website.]