Making Performance Reports Work

The Value of Performance Measurement in Promoting Improvements in Women's Health

“…A performance report can be utilized by healthcare providers (hospitals or individuals) to identify their level of performance and stimulate improvements in their quality of care (Hibbard et al 2003;Brown et al 2005); however, studies tend to show that performance reports have limited uptake and mixed effects on performance (marshall et al 2000). It is important for organizations to learn "how to link the performance measurement results to actions [for performance improvement], rather than having the performance measurement system simply keep records" (Adair et al 2006: 67).…”

“…A study by Hibbard and colleagues (2003) found that public disclosure of performance information for obstetrics care stimulated significantly more quality improvement activities in areas of low performance than private reports; but there was no significant difference for cardiac care. Providers may use broad, comparative public reports to stimulate improved performance if the policy context supports performance reporting and improvement (Brown et al 2005), but will similar results be seen with private reports specific to women' s health? There are many reasons why performance reports focusing on women' s health may not have this effect, including, but not limited to, historic marginalization of women' s health, the absence of a focus on women' s health issues at a hospital and debate over what constitutes good performance in women' s health.…”

“…In addition, the leadership and commitment of senior decision-makers may have an important "agenda-setting" role in an organizational response to performance data (Huberman 1994;Ginsburg 2003;Adair et al 2006). • Hospital prioritization of women' s health in a written statement is an explicit commitment to women' s health that may steer performance improvement towards women' s health (Huberman 1994;Ginsburg 2003;Brown et al 2005). …”

Performance Reporting to Help Organizations Promote Quality Improvement

“…All these organizations try to present their data in a way that suits the needs of a specific audience. However, when it comes to effectively targeting groups that can actually use the data to achieve significant impacts, one audience stands out from the rest: health system managers and providers, who can interpret and apply performance data to improve the quality of care their organizations deliver (Wallace et al 2007;Brown et al 2005).…”

“…As well, report cards often provide systems-level or aggregate data that are of little use to managers or providers wanting to make sustainable improvements in individual organizations or facilities (Robinowitz and Dudley 2006;Shekelle 2005). If the goal, then, is to spur quality improvement activities and enhance quality of care, performance reports are best targeted at hospitals and managed-care organizations (Wallace et al 2007;Brown et al 2005).…”