Building the business case for clinical quality.
Following are key findings of VHA Inc.'s Transformation of the ICU collaborative: Instead of improving patient outcomes, focusing too much on reducing costs as a performance improvement strategy only lays the groundwork for increased quality problems and higher costs. Improving quality can improve the bottom line, as long as there is patient demand. As a type, hospitals are organizations that characteristically have high fixed costs. The more customers such organizations can serve with the same investment, the greater their profits.
Ward
William J
WJ
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA.
Spragens
Lynn
L
Smithson
Ken
K
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000191:economics*; D005377:Financial Management, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D013781:Texas