Performance measurement is a set of processes in an organization in order to monitor its programs, systems and care processes are working based on data collected data and information over and over again.
It seems certain that, performance measurement results provide information associated with organizations current performance and resource allocation to optimize the programs efficiencies and effectiveness. The core areas of performance measurement in organization are finance, operations, and services:
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- Finance : this section is inherently tied to two main activities such as Increasing the efficiency of account receivable, Collecting of payments for services rendered in a timely manner in order to gain efficacy in aforementioned areas.
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- Operations: operation is perceived to tracking the time intervals and lengths of service delivered in organization from technical and operational point of view especially in service-oriented industries.
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- Internal process : internal process is intended to measuring the frequency of delivered services in accordance with evidence-based guidelines or measuring how effective services is improving the outcome. As IT (information technology) is widely integrated to health care setting, performance management support will broaden throughout the organization.
Why does an organization need to measure performance?
The reasons why organization choose to measure its performance are considerably important because performance measurement provides a reliable process to determine the current working processes as well as in today’s demand-oriented economy, there is a demand for transparency and increasing security of an organization’s business practices. Typical circumstances of why organization tends to choose to measure its performance are identified:
- Distinguish what appears to be happening from what is really happening
- Establish a baseline; i.e., measure before improvements are made
- Make decisions based on solid evidence
- Demonstrate that changes lead to improvements
- Allow performance comparisons across sites
- Monitor process changes to ensure improvements are sustained over time
- Recognize improved performance
Types of performance measure
One of the benefits of categorizing performance measure is to better understanding of what systems or processes are measured. Four types of performance measures base on the organization’s underlying systems are listed as follows:
- Process measure quantifies service provided to clients based on evidence of efficacy or effectiveness.
- Outcome measure quantifies status in the organizational area.
- Balancing measure ensures that changes to improve one part of the system are not causing new problems in other parts of the system.
- Structure of care measure quantifies a feature of organization relevant to its capacity to provide service.