scholarly journals Balanced scorecard method for healthcare quality improvement: A critical analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Mohammed Khaled Al-Hanawi

Throughout the world there is an on-going effort to determine quality in healthcare settings. The very definition of “quality”, particularly in healthcare, is rather elusive. The aim of this critique is to analyze the Balance Scorecard method to measure quality as it relates to patient safety in healthcare organisations. Analysis of the Balanced Scorecard in this context determined that the objectivity, both in its measurements and its ability to link together the organization’s quality and financial goals, is indeed beneficial. However, this methodology was also found to be unduly focused on systems and administration rather than on the actual health and safety of patients. The result is a tool that measures “quality” in financial and organizational terms, as sought by healthcare management, and this will continue to be the case until there is a fundamental shift towards defining quality of healthcare in terms of the patients that utilize healthcare services.

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Steyl

Background: Measuring client satisfaction is part of the quality assurance process and has become an integral part of healthcare management strategies globally. It is essential for improvement of amenities in healthcare facilities.Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess patients with type 2 diabetes’ satisfaction with healthcare services at primary healthcare settings in the Cape Metropolitan district, Western Cape, South Africa.Methods: This cross-sectional study used proportionate stratified random sampling. The Patient Survey for Quality of Care scale was used to assess patients with type 2 diabetes’ satisfaction with quality of care received. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed in the analysis of the quantitative data. The open-ended question was analysed qualitatively.Results: The majority of patients were satisfied with the overall quality of care. Dissatisfaction was reported for waiting time to get appointments at the clinic, to see a healthcare professional on the same day and clarity of instructions for managing their diabetes.Conclusion: Employing more staff in the multidisciplinary team and improving health information by developing staff through continuous education could foster more positive experiences and provide care that contributes to the well-being of patients.Clinical implications: Addressing patients’ views regarding quality of healthcare services could assist in overall improvement of healthcare provision through the rectification of the system weaknesses. Satisfaction with quality of care could positively affect adherence to treatment protocols that could lead to better quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Mahboob Ali ◽  
Anita Medhekar

There is an increasing evidence of people from Bangladesh travelling to neighboring countries of Asia, such as India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore for medical treatment due to poor quality of healthcare services, high cost, and non-availability of speciality medical treatment and facilities. Medical travel is a practise where patients travel to other countries for diagnostic, pathological and complex invasive surgeries due to various push factors in their home country which prevents them for getting affordable, accessible and accredited quality of medical treatment in a timely manner, due to high cost of surgery, uninsured, long waiting period, non-availability of treatment, lack of medical facilities and proper care, lack of trained doctors and nurses, ethical and regulatory reasons, corruption and inadequate public or private medical facilities. This study is based on qualitative and quantitative analysis to examine why people are travelling from Bangladesh to India for medical treatment. Quantitative data were randomly collected from six divisional cities of Bangladesh: Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshai, Barisal and Khulna and two districts Comilla and Bogra. A total of 1282 participants, out of 1450 returned the questionnaires. Data were analyzed using regression analysis. The results concluded that the pull factors that motivated Bangladeshis to travel to India for medical treatment were: low cost of surgery, qualified experienced doctors, quality of nursing care, non-availability of treatment in Bangladesh, and state of the art medical facilities and treatment in India, which concurs with the literature


2015 ◽  
pp. 664-687
Author(s):  
Alexiei Dingli ◽  
Charlie Abela ◽  
Ilenia D'Ambrogio

Owing to growing population health needs, the proportion of medical staff to patients keeps diminishing; yet, the quality in healthcare services is likely to increase. Through the amalgamation of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) and Semantic Web technologies, PINATA seeks to deal with this issue. To perk up the quality of healthcare services, PINATA utilises pervasive devices to help doctors and nurses to concentrate on the patient. The movement of medical staff and patients is tracked by means of Wi-Fi sensors whilst an automated camera system monitors the interaction of people within their environment. The system operates autonomously in response to particular situations by guiding medical staff towards emergencies in a timely manner and providing them with the information they require on their handheld devices. This assures that patients are given the best possible attention on a 24/7 basis especially when the medical staff is not nearby.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 690-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Cavallone ◽  
Francesca Magno ◽  
Alberto Zucchi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how geomarketing statical tools (notably, gravitational models) can support healthcare organisations to improve the quality of their services. Design/methodology/approach Geomarketing tools were applied to the analysis of data (91,478 observations) concerning the performance of nuclear magnetic resonance. Findings Geomarketing models can support and enhance the planning of service provisions of healthcare organisations. Drawing the planning actions on the patient needs and actual behaviours allow the healthcare organisations to obtain better market performance. Practical implications The results support the health service planning activities related to covering the so-called “offer gaps”. Originality/value This is the first study to apply geomarketing to improve the quality of healthcare services.


Author(s):  
Alexiei Dingli ◽  
Charlie Abela ◽  
Ilenia D’Ambrogio

Owing to growing population health needs, the proportion of medical staff to patients keeps diminishing; yet, the quality in healthcare services is likely to increase. Through the amalgamation of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) and Semantic Web technologies, PINATA seeks to deal with this issue. To perk up the quality of healthcare services, PINATA utilises pervasive devices to help doctors and nurses to concentrate on the patient. The movement of medical staff and patients is tracked by means of Wi-Fi sensors whilst an automated camera system monitors the interaction of people within their environment. The system operates autonomously in response to particular situations by guiding medical staff towards emergencies in a timely manner and providing them with the information they require on their handheld devices. This assures that patients are given the best possible attention on a 24/7 basis especially when the medical staff is not nearby.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Cacciatore ◽  
P Kannengiesser ◽  
E Carini ◽  
A Di Pilla ◽  
A M Pezzullo ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The Balanced-Scorecard (BSC) is a management tool developed in the early 1990s to balance the impact of financial and non-financial parameters and analyse the organisational performance in private companies according to four determinants. The original BSC has spread to different sectors in the last decades, including healthcare services, in numerous amended versions. The aim of our project was to identify potential indicators of BSC for performance evaluation in general hospitals. Methods We performed a systematic review of literature on Pubmed and Web of Science using the search string “balanced scorecard AND healthcare AND indicators”. We found 102 papers; 80 papers were removed for irrelevance, absence of full text or performance indicators. We only considered articles that followed the classic structure of BSC (Customer, Internal Processes, Financial, and Learning and Growth). The indicators listed in them were classified according to the four determinants of organisational performance. Results Eight articles out of 22 followed the classic structure of the BSC. The most represented category was Internal Processes (59 indicators), followed by Learning and Growth (52), Customer (40) and Financial (33). The number of common/overlapping indicators was low (5 for Internal Processes and 4 for the three other categories). Conclusions While BSC has spread to different settings, the list of indicators used in the classic four determinants for performance evaluation is heterogeneous. While common points can be identified between indicators, our review highlighted that every BSC is developed in a unique way which makes it difficult to identify a general framework adaptable to different hospital settings. Key messages The use of the Balanced Scorecard as management tool has spread to healthcare settings in the last decade. Indicators in BSC for healthcare settings are heterogeneous and only a limited number follow the standard structure of BSC.


Author(s):  
Karan Chawla ◽  
Angesom Kibreab ◽  
Victor & Scott ◽  
Edward L. Lee ◽  
Farshad Aduli ◽  
...  

Objective: It is unknown whether patients’ ratings of the quality of healthcare services they receive truly correlate with the quality of care from their providers. Understanding this association can potentiate improvement in healthcare delivery. We evaluated the association between patients’ ratings of the quality of healthcare services received and uptake of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Subject and Methods: We used two iterations of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) of adults in the United States. HINTS 2007 (4,007 respondents; weighted population=75,397,128) evaluated whether respondents were up-to-date with CRC screening while HINTS 4 cycle 3 (1,562 respondents; weighted population=76,628,000) evaluated whether participants had ever received CRC screening in the past. All included respondents from both surveys were at least 50 years of age, had no history of CRC, and had rated the quality of healthcare services that they had received at their healthcare provider’s office in the previous 12 months. Results: HINTS 2007 data showed that respondents who rated their healthcare as good, or fair/poor were significantly less likely to be up to date with CRC screening compared to those who rated their healthcare as excellent. We found comparable results from analysis of HINTS 4 cycle 3 data with poorer uptake of CRC screening as the healthcare quality ratings of respondents’ reduced. Conclusion: Our study suggested that patients who reported receiving lower quality of healthcare services were less likely to have undergone and be compliant with CRC screening recommendations. It is important to pay close attention to patient feedback surveys in order to improve healthcare delivery.


2021 ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Muhamad Iqbal Januadi Putra ◽  
Nabila Dety Novia Utami

The presence of healthcare facilities is quite essential to provide good healthcare services in a particular area, however, the existence of healthcare facilities is not evenly distributed in Cianjur Regency. This condition leads to the disparities of healthcare facilities across the Cianjur Regency. In this paper, we aim to measure and map the spatial disparities of healthcare facilities using a Two-Step Floating Catchment Analysis (2SFCA). This method can calculate the magnitude of spatial accessibility for healthcare facilities by formulating the travel time threshold and the quality of healthcare facilities across the study area. This research shows the result that the spatial accessibility of healthcare facilities in the Cianjur Regency is not evenly distributed across the districts. The spatial accessibility value resulted from 2SFCA is ranging from 0- 3.97. A low value indicates low spatial accessibility, while a higher value shows good accessibility. The majority of districts in the Cianjur Regency have the spatial accessibility value 0-0.5 (86%). Meanwhile, only a few have the higher value; value 0.5-0.99 as much as 6.6%, 0.99-1.49 as 3.3%, and 3.48-3.97 has a percentage of 3.3%. Also, this analysis results in the cluster of good spatial accessibility in healthcare facilities, namely the Pagelaran District and Cipanas District. Interestingly, the downtown of Cianjur Regency has lower spatial accessibility compared to both areas.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document