Discussion: Performance Reports/Dashboards

Performance reports are a valuable tool for gauging the financial well-being and progress of a health care organization.

When properly designed, these reports can provide data on key measures, quality indicators, performance of operations, patient satisfaction, personnel, and facility capacity.

Have you ever seen the cockpit of an airplane? The dashboard is covered with a variety of knobs and gauges. Having a pilot who understands the meaning of the data contained on the dashboard is essential for passenger safety and for reaching the correct destination in a timely fashion.

Similarly, a dashboard for your organization can supply a wide variety of performance information to assist in the financial decision making process.

In this Discussion, you will describe a dashboard that would be useful for you in your current position and organization (or one with which you are familiar).

To prepare:

Review this week's Media program, Dashboards.

Consider your own organization (or one with which you are familiar) and the key information that would be useful for decision making.

Develop a list of key performance indicators in the following categories that would be useful for your situation. Include:

2-3 financial indicators

2-3 operational indicators

2-3 satisfaction indicators

2-3 quality indicators

Post describe the specific indicators you selected for each category and explain why you chose those particular ones. Describe whether each indicator is a leading or trailing indicator and how this particular combination would provide the best overall view of.