A contribution to performance measurement in the healthcare industry: the industrial point of view

Abstract

The health domain has entered the crucial phase of an important paradigm shift. The word 'customer' has started replacing the word 'patient'. It has been commonly admitted that the hospital's industry must be financed by social systems and only continue to exist as long as sufficient financial resources are available. This statement should be definitely replaced by: "What must be changed such that within available budgets more health can be produced?" This new philosophy needs a system that is able to measure impacts of any local modification on the global system. The present paper aims at finding a Theory of Constraints (TOC)-based answer to the hospital measurement system. TOC has been largely applied in the industrial world. Some successful implementations are reported from the financial industry, 1 but so far the socio-economic world using TOC is mainly limited to profit organisations. We propose an extension of the TOC concept towards a non-profit world.Myriam Kucina is a specialist in clinical paedagogy and hygiene. She has been working in a Luxembourg hospital for 13 years. Her main professional activity consists of developing quality systems and performing efficiency measurements in hospitals. She also obtained a university degree in auditing and managing the EFQM and became a recognised European assessor for the EFQM model. She has been working as a consultant in care for the EHL, the Luxembourg association of hospital managers. She developed quality management and lifelong learning programmes for the paramedical personnel prior to be recruited by the Luxembourg centre for reeducation.

Theory of constraints in healthcare: a systematic literature review

“…According to some researchers, the goal of healthcare system can be stated as: "Quality healthcare with increased flow of patients" (Kershaw, 2000); "Optimizing life assurance and improving society's quality of life at an affordable cost." (Hunink, 2001); "Optimize services of healthcare system" (Breen et al, 2002); "Thinking of money just for meeting operational expense while providing safe healthcare" (Mcnutt and Odwazny, 2004); "Attain healthier population today and later on" (Schaefers et al, 2007); "Enhance quantity and quality of life, both today and later on" (Sadat et al, 2013).…”

Theory of constraints for publicly funded health systems

“…al., 2002), "providing safe care while thinking of money only as an operating expense -something to be reduced" (Mcnutt and Odwazny, 2004), "to treat more patients both now and in the future" (Wright and King, 2006), to "maximize quality medical services provided to its customers, subject to budgetary constraints" (Ronen et. al., 2006), and "to make more health, today as well as in the future" (Schaefers et. al., 2007).…”