International Journal for Quality in Health Care vol. 17 no. 3 © The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Society for Quality in Health Care; all rights reserved
Editorial |
Performance measurement: is it now more scientific?
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The role of performance measurements and clinical indicators has changed from being a minor component in the management of health care to one where the demands for greater accountability, safety, efficiency, and quality have accentuated the role of measurement and reporting. For those who have been involved in the development of indicators this will be seen as progress. However, the increased demand also requires that the field is associated with greater scientific rigour [1].
In this issue, three papers provide a new approach to one component that is used to define indicators: how to develop a quality framework. The framework is the first of four stages that are required in the application of clinical indicators, namely: (i) defining the measures (derived from the framework); (ii) collecting the data; (iii) appropriate analyses and interpretation; (iv) acting on the results.
Below we look at some of the methods used during
Head, Discipline in Quality in Healthcare Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle NSW Australia robert.gibberd@newcastle.edu.au