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Healthcare Performance Measurement Tools

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Healthcare Performance Measurement Tools

Healthcare facilities require fervent performance measurements in practice. Conversely,

it becomes difficult on the assortment of the best instrument to use for the healthcare managers

and leaders (Ponniah, 2010, p.371). The debate revolves around either a dashboard or the

scorecard. Well, it also depends on the information the tool provides.

Dashboards Verses Scorecards

The verdict on the best tracking tool to use depends on the anticipated outcome.

Dashboards measure the efficacy of the organization through tracking and measurement of goals

while the scorecards measure the organizations' comportment towards the achievement of targets

(Yih, 2011, p.99). However, both take the structure of a report that measures perilous factors

knowns as Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that aids the management in making decisions

according to (Tan, 2018, p.36). The healthcare dashboard empowers the healthcare specialists to

access patient’s statistics in real-time and daily, which surges hospital performance, for instance,

delay in the admission of patients. On the other hand, a scorecard appraises the effectiveness of

the healthcare facility devotion to its objectives, they are long term and slow and depends on the

period set for data collection (Tan, 2018, p.37).

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Figure 1: Comparison Between Dashboard and Scorecard

Source: Ponniah, P. (2010). Data warehousing fundamentals for IT professionals. Wiley.

Importance and Drawbacks

These tools offer transparency and accountability for the practice in the platform.

Healthcare scorecards gauge and inform on the general performance of the facility; if the

practitioners are understaffed, or shoddy service delivery (Tan, 2018, p.37). On the other hand,

the dashboard communicates on what is on the ground daily. If there is a patient that requires

surgery, what service has the patient received? Are they effective? Well, the tools improve

performance reporting through better process alignment.

Nevertheless, the scorecards lack risk analysis, hence becomes challenging medical

project managers to make decisions from the insights. Additionally, it lacks the time dimension,

daily progress and analysis bets suit excellent performance. Moreover, a dashboard does not link

to actionable data when presented to the frontline practitioners.

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References

Ponniah, P. (2010). Data warehousing fundamentals for IT professionals. Wiley.

Tan, J. (2018). Handbook of research on emerging perspectives on healthcare information

systems and informatics. IGI Global.

Yih, Y. (2011). Handbook of healthcare delivery systems. CRC Press.