No one is free from market competitiveness. Even healthcare institutions must be concerned with performance, Quality and results. The more efficient your organization is, the greater the chances of perpetuating the business. However, we see great difficulty in establishing and monitoring performance indicators in healthcare institutions.

This is why, in today's post, you'll discover how performance indicators can help improve hospital management. Shall we proceed?

What are indicators?

First of all, let's review what performance indicators are. They are units of measurement that help monitor and measure the results of a hospital organization.

They are closely linked to the organization's strategic planning and allow for monitoring the evolution of quality goals stipulated in the annual plan.

How to plan the right quality indicators?

From the overall objectives of the hospital organization, short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals must be identified. Each goal is linked to one or more performance indicators that allow tracking progress toward the final objective.

These metrics should be monitored month to month to provide a comprehensive and secure view of actions and results. In this regard, management software can be a great ally, as it offers ease in establishing and monitoring your quality indicators in hospital management.

Quality indicators

Hospital quality indicators are some of the most important groups of data to track. They indicate your institution's performance in offering good healthcare, ensuring the best hospital practices.

Good performance in quality means satisfied patients, with their health up to date, not to mention the improvement of the brand's reputation. Check out some of these indicators:

●      Overall hospital mortality rate;

●      Hospital infection rate;

●      C-section rate;

●      Rate of unnecessary surgeries;

●      Complication or incident rate;

●      Mortality rate;

●      Insurance plan denial rates;

●      Among others.

Efficient infrastructure usage indicators

Investment in infrastructure is one of the highest in the healthcare field. An idle surgical bed, for example, means that your investment is not generating financial returns for the organization.

The same happens with X-ray equipment, MRI machines, and operating rooms. If there are no patients, there is no financial gain, only expenses. In this regard, it is important to identify and monitor indicators that show the effective use of space, such as:

●      Bed occupancy rate;

●      Equipment idle rate;

●      Equipment depreciation;

●      Return on Investment (ROI) rate.

Human performance indicators

Another aspect to be regularly monitored are the human performance indicators, which are tied to your team's performance. Given the necessary infrastructure for everyone to work with quality, it is possible to monitor a series of indicators that will help in hospital management:

●      Productivity per hour;

●      Cost of personnel per hour;

●      Absence rate;

●      Idle rate;

●      Effectiveness of training;

●      Return on employee investment.

Quality indicators in customer service

In the healthcare sector, Quality of service is one of the greatest responsibilities of any company. The delicate state in which patients find themselves, both physically and psychologically, requires adequate preparation and, of course, monitoring of indicators. Some quality indicators to be monitored:

●      Patient satisfaction index;

●      Number of complaints resolved;

●      Number of recommendations received;

●      Mortality rate;

●      Hospital infection rates;

●      Average patient length of stay.

Indicators of efficient resource use

Hospitals, as well as clinics and other establishments that deal with people's health, work directly with the purchase and storage of medicines, exchange of equipment, and implementation of new projects in order to improve care.

In this regard, it is necessary to evaluate whether the resources are being used correctly. An easy example to remember is with regard to medication inventory: proper inventory management avoids losses due to expired expiration dates. Some indicators related to the hospital logistics area are:

●      Supplier quality;

●      Inventory turnover;

●      Restock Time;

●      Number of drug losses due to expired drugs;

●      Stockouts due to poor storage.

Strategic management indicators

Sectoral indicators serve as the basis for the hospital organization to achieve its larger objectives, as outlined in strategic planning. The correct monitoring of the evolution of these efforts is done through strategic management indicators, which can be:

●      Profitability index;

●      Profitability index;

●      Debt level;

●      Net worth.

How to manage these hospital management indicators

When we come into contact with so much data and so many decisions to be made, the impression is that it is impossible to monitor everything at once and extract value from such information to the point of being able to improve hospital management.

However, it is possible to standardize all calculations and optimize data reporting by using proprietary tools for this purpose, such as strategic management systems.

Ready to offer precise insights into your organization's performance indicators, these systems are capable of demonstrating, through Dashboards, a complete overview of hospital management.

Thus, decisions become simpler to make, and the actions necessary to advance a strategic objective gain execution speed.

Want to know more about this technology that is revolutionizing the way hospital organizations are managed? Get to know Stratec's strategic management software!