Assisting allied health in performance evaluation: a systematic review

Abstract

BackgroundPerformance evaluation raises several challenges to allied health practitioners and there is no agreed approach to measuring or monitoring allied health service performance. The aim of this review was to examine the literature on performance evaluation in healthcare to assist in the establishment of a framework that can guide the measurement and evaluation of allied health clinical service performance. This review determined the core elements of a performance evaluation system, tools for evaluating performance, and barriers to the implementation of performance evaluation.MethodsA systematic review of the literature was undertaken. Five electronic databases were used to search for relevant articles: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsychInfo, and Academic Search Premier. Articles which focussed on any allied health performance evaluation or those which examined performance in health care in general were considered in the review. Content analysis was used to synthesise the findings from individual articles.ResultsA total of 37 articles were included in the review. The literature suggests there are core elements involved in performance evaluation which include prioritising clinical areas for measurement, setting goals, selecting performance measures, identifying sources of feedback, undertaking performance measurement, and reporting the results to relevant stakeholders. The literature describes performance evaluation as multi-dimensional, requiring information or data from more than one perspective to provide a rich assessment of performance. A range of tools or instruments are available to capture various perspectives and gather a comprehensive picture of health care quality.ConclusionsEvery allied health care delivery system has different performance needs and will therefore require different approaches. However, there are core processes that can be used as a framework to evaluate allied health performance. A careful examination of barriers to performance evaluation and subsequent tailoring of strategies to overcome these barriers should be undertaken to achieve the aims of performance evaluation. The findings of this review should inform the development of a standardised framework that can be used to measure and evaluate allied health performance. Future research should explore the utility and overall impact of such framework in allied health service delivery.

Sharing Responsibilities within the General Practice Team – A Cross-Sectional Study of Task Delegation in Germany

“…HCAs that receive additional training are referred to as “health care assistants in the family practice (VERAHs)” [ 1 ]. In other countries they are called “medical assistants” [ 2 ], “physician assistants” [ 3 ], “healthcare assistants” [ 4 ], or in a broader sense “allied health assistants” [ 5 ]. The overarching aim is to increase the efficiency of comprehensive health care by delegating tasks, and thus sharing responsibility.…”

“…Uncertainty with regard to funding and which tasks to delegate, as well as the assistants’ need for supervision and training, has resulted in widespread skepticism [ 14 ]. A systematic review summarizing the new responsibilities and advantages and disadvantages of employing allied health assistants shows that the main benefit appears to be an improvement in service quality as a result of an increase in patient orientation, while disadvantages concern mainly role confusion due to unclear responsibilities [ 5 ]. Role confusion may also reflect physician inexperience in sharing responsibility for certain tasks with new healthcare personnel.…”

Rancang Bangun Sistem Informasi Remunerasi Jasa Pelayanan RSUD Kepahiang Bengkulu Menggunakan Metode FAST

“…Penilaian kinerja menjadi sangat diperlukan untuk mengawasi kinerja karyawan terutama diantara tenaga kesehatan. Penelitian oleh (Lizarondo et al,., 2014) menyebutkan peran dan tanggung jawab komite kompensasi di sebuah rumah sakit dapat diperluas mencakup evaluasi kinerja dan perencanaan untuk memastikan kompensasi telah diberikan secara wajar dan dapat dibenarkan.…”

ASPIRE for quality: a new evidence-based tool to evaluate clinical service performance

“…Allied health is a diverse and broad term covering multiple disciplines, providing not just direct patient or therapy services, but also involving diagnostic or technical services and education [ 2 ]. Such diversity creates a challenging scenario in regards to performance evaluation, as the delivery of allied health care is unique to each discipline and will present with different performance needs that will therefore require different evaluation approaches [ 3 ]. As allied health professionals take on a more advanced and extended scope of practice [ 4 – 6 ], the evaluation of clinical service performance is becoming essential in order to identify strengths and weaknesses to improve future performance [ 7 ], and to ensure that services are targeted [ 8 ] and cost effective [ 9 ].…”

“…The selection and implementation of an effective clinical service assessment strategy is often challenging for allied health practitioners, the individual disciplines have different objectives and purposes, varied ways of operation, stakeholders, outcomes and quality measures. As such, there is no one-size-fits-all approach or one agreed approach for performance evaluation that can be recommended to all allied health care settings [ 3 ]. This presents a clear need for an individualised and tailored evidence-based evaluation tool to assist allied health practitioners in clinical performance evaluation.…”