Performance measurement and reporting in Australian public hospitals

Written by Denisa Călin on March 22, 2011. Posted in Around the world, Articles, KPI

The Report on Government Services (RoGS) 2011 realized by the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision (SCRGSP) offers a detailed perspective on how the Australian government informs improvements to the effectiveness and efficiency of government services. The report includes a review of the general framework for performance reporting, alignment of RoGS indicators and developing data quality information and case studies.

For the first time since RoGS was established in 1993, this year’s report includes the alignment of reporting in Health and the Public Hospitals. The general framework for the performance indicators in the public hospitals is represented as follows:

Performance indicators for public hospitals

The main objectives for public hospitals are to provide acute and specialist services that are:

Safe and high quality;
Appropriate and responsive to individual needs;
Affordable timely and accessible;
Equitably and efficiently delivered (SCRGSP, 2011).

The report underlines a clear distinction between outputs – the services delivered, and outcomes – the impact of these services on the status of an individual or a group.

Each objective in the framework is measured through performance indicators, such as:

# Emergency department waiting times
# Emergency department patients seen
# Waiting times for admission following emergency department care
# Waiting times for elective surgery
% Separation rates for selected procedures
% Surgical site infection rates
% Unplanned readmission
% Hospital acquired infection rates
% Pre-anaesthetic consultation rates
% Accredited beds
# Nursing workforce
$ Recurrent cost per casemix-adjusted separation
# Relative stay index
$ Recurrent cost per non-admitted occasion of service
% Patient satisfaction
# Sentinel events

The Report on Government Services (RoGS) aims to include a robust set of performance indicators, being subject to a program of continual improvement in reporting performance. By enhancing performance measurement approaches and techniques, and promoting transparency and informed debate about comparative performance, the data in the 2011 RoGS can provide an incentive to improve the performance of government services (SCRGSP, 2011).

For more insights on Hospitals Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), please visit the smartKPIs.com library of KPI examples.

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