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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2019 | Volume
: 6
| Issue : 2 | Page : 99-100 |
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The need for a balanced scorecard to monitor hospital performance
Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava1, Prateek Saurabh Shrivastava2
1 Vice-Principal Curriculum, Member of the Medical Education Unit and Institute Research Council, Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (SBV) – Deemed to be University, Ammapettai, Nellikuppam, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (SBV) – Deemed to be University, Ammapettai, Nellikuppam, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India
| Date of Web Publication | 18-Nov-2019 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava
Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (SBV) – Deemed to be University, Tiruporur - Guduvancherry Main Road, Ammapettai, Nellikuppam, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu - 603 108
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/ami.ami_17_19
How to cite this article:
Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS. The need for a balanced scorecard to monitor hospital performance. Acta Med Int 2019;6:99-100 |
Dear Editor,
Hospitals or health-care establishments have been identified as one of the complex systems which have to simultaneously fulfill various roles to function effectively.[1] In general, apart from the equipment and infrastructure, any hospital comprises two major types of stakeholders, namely internal (doctors, nursing staff, and paramedical staff, etc.) and external (patients and their relatives).[1],[2] In addition, the innovation/growth dimensions (provision of laparoscopic services or dialysis facilities) or financial/resources attribute (increasing hospital revenue, budgeting, staff training and retention, etc.) and also the internal processes (standard operating procedures for any task) should also be given due consideration.[1],[2]
Acknowledging the fact that patient care in hospital settings has to be provided on an urgent basis, as the lives of humans are at stake, the hospital employees and the administration have to be always on the toes.[2],[3] Moreover, any established hospital is built with not only an aim to offer clinical care but also to grow gradually.[2] Keeping all the above things in mind, it is quite obvious that equilibrium has to be maintained between the various roles to be fulfilled by a hospital to ultimately accomplish the vision, mission, and objectives of the hospital.[2],[3]
The balanced scorecard (BSC) can be regarded as the solution for this multifaceted problem, and as a matter of fact, quite encouraging results have been observed in all the settings where BSC has been employed.[1],[2] The scope of BSC goes beyond the financial dimension alone and takes into account the views of all stakeholders and subsequently proposes a set of performance indicators to guide the overall functioning of a hospital.[2],[4] The basic aim of a BSC is to establish a linkage between the vision, mission, and objectives of the hospital, and this is done through the formulation of performance indicators, together which gives an indication about the progress of the hospital.[3],[4]
Each hospital has to formulate their own BSC and should be designed by reaching a consensus and the performance indices (viz., at the end of 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years) should be revised periodically, so that the hospital keeps growing.[1],[2] An example of a BSC has been shown in [Table 1] and it clearly specifies the broad categories and the performance indicators.[1],[2],[3],[4] It is vital to carefully think and formulate different performance indicators for the various perspectives and there has to be a mechanism to review the attainment of the same after a defined time span which should be specified earlier.[1],[2],[3],[4] Thus, the BSC simplifies the entire functioning of the hospital and gives the stakeholders a clear task ahead of them, in which they have to show an improvement.[2],[3]
In conclusion, the BSC is an effective tool to encourage as well as monitor the functioning of the clinicians and other employees. All the hospital administrators should look forward to ensure that it is comprehensively designed and implemented within their setup for streamlining the complex work pattern of a hospital.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Rabbani F, Lalji SN, Abbas F, Jafri SW, Razzak JA, Nabi N, et al. Understanding the context of balanced scorecard implementation: A hospital-based case study in Pakistan. Implement Sci 2011;6:31.  |
| 2. | Rouis S, Ben Abdelaziz A, Nouira H, Khelil M, Zoghlami C, Ben Abdelaziz A. Development of a balanced scorecard for the monitoring of hospital performance in the countries of the greater Maghreb. Systematic review. Tunis Med 2018;96:774-88. |
| 3. | Gao H, Chen H, Feng J, Qin X, Wang X, Liang S, et al. Balanced scorecard-based performance evaluation of Chinese county hospitals in underdeveloped areas. J Int Med Res 2018;46:1947-62. |
| 4. | Hwa M, Sharpe BA, Wachter RM. Development and implementation of a balanced scorecard in an academic hospitalist group. J Hosp Med 2013;8:148-53. |
[Table 1]
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