"You can't manage what you can't measure."
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W. Edwards Deming |
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Peter Drucker |
That quote
is sometimes attributed to W. Edwards Deming and sometimes to Peter Drucker. The fact
that the attribution is given to two very intelligent business managers is a testament to the general
esteem in which the concept is held. The concept applies to the healthcare industry as much as to any
other. That said, any practicing physician will tell you that there are limits to the data you can
collect in situations where decisions must be made anyway. While most physicians would greatly prefer
to practice only evidence-based medicine, that simply isn't possible. Hospital administration would
also like metrics that show the organization's performance over time but that is more possible.
There is a well known source of such data published by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services
(CMS). Interestingly enough, most organizations look at it as a marketing tool (which it can be) but
nothing more. Ashbec LLC has developed a reporting system that can allow you to compare the
performance of a medical facility against other facilities of your choice. You might wish to look at
the performance of several different facilities that are all part of the same health system. You may
be interested in looking at the performance of competitors in a geographic area. You may wish to
look at peer organizations across the country. Ashbec LLC has started with the patient safety data
and converted the metrics into national percentile rankings that allow these comparisons. Clients
can look at performance metrics published by CMS converted to quarterly percentile rankings
going back to the fourth quarter of 2017. (Looking at the trends over time does give a totally
different perspective than simply looking at the most recently published data.) Clients can also
define combinations of metrics that provide insight across practice areas or overall performance.
All of this can be done at very affordable prices. If you would like more information on the data
that is already available and how you can customize your own reports, click
here or contact us
using the menus at the top of the screen.