International Journal for Quality in Health Care Advance Access originally published online on September 9, 2005
International Journal for Quality in Health Care 2005 17(6):487-496; doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzi072
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A performance assessment framework for hospitals: the WHO regional office for Europe PATH project
1 World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Barcelona, Spain, 2 Universitè de Montreal, Département d’administration de la santé et GRIS, Montreal, Québec, Canada, 3 University of Amsterdam Academic Medical Centre, Department of Social Medicine, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 4 Centre for Performance Sciences, Elkridge, Maryland, USA.
Objective. The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe launched in 2003 a project aiming to develop and disseminate a flexible and comprehensive tool for the assessment of hospital performance and referred to as the performance assessment tool for quality improvement in hospitals (PATH). This project aims at supporting hospitals in assessing their performance, questioning their own results, and translating them into actions for improvement, by providing hospitals with tools for performance assessment and by enabling collegial support and networking among participating hospitals.
Methods. PATH was developed through a series of four workshops gathering experts representing most valuable experiences on hospital performance assessment worldwide. An extensive review of the literature on hospital performance projects was carried out, more than 100 performance indicators were scrutinized, and a survey was carried out in 20 European countries.
Results. Six dimensions were identified for assessing hospital performance: clinical effectiveness, safety, patient centredness, production efficiency, staff orientation and responsive governance. The following outcomes were achieved: (i) definition of the concepts and identification of key dimensions of hospital performance; (ii) design of the architecture of PATH to enhance evidence-based management and quality improvement through performance assessment; (iii) selection of a core and a tailored set of performance indicators with detailed operational definitions; (iv) identification of trade-offs between indicators; (v) elaboration of descriptive sheets for each indicator to support hospitals in interpreting their results; (vi) design of a balanced dashboard; and (vii) strategies for implementation of the PATH framework.
Conclusion. PATH is currently being pilot implemented in eight countries to refine its framework before further expansion.
Keywords: delivery of health care, Europe, hospitals, performance indicators, performance measurement, quality improvement tools
Address reprint requests to Jeremy Veillard, Health Results Team, Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, 101 Bloor Street West, 11th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2Z7 Canada. E-mail: jeremy.veillard{at}moh.gov.on.ca
Accepted for publication July 30, 2005.
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