Data envelopment analysis: performance normalization and benchmarking in healthcare.
Healthcare organizations are being impacted by the current economic environment as severely as for-profit firms. As a result, hospital and system managers are being required to continuously assess and improve their operational efficiency, by focusing on productivity, costs and volumes. Benchmarking is one way to compare performance across hospitals, but many benchmarking methods are of limited value because they rely on ratio analysis which is fairly simplistic and does not allow for comparisons across organizations of different sizes, focus or risk profiles. One way to improve benchmarking efforts is an analytical technique called data envelopment analysis (DEA), which performs complex mathematical optimization of inputs (resources consumed) and outputs of healthcare production processes to facilitate comparison of one organization to others making adjustments for scale. This article outlines how healthcare organizations can use a new benchmarking technique to normalize, or standardize performance, using DEA tools.
Galterio
Lou
L
HIMSS Management Engineering-Process Improvement Committee, USA.
Helton
Jeff
J
Langabeer
James
J
DelliFraine
Jami
J
D019985:Benchmarking / Q000379:methods*; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D012124:Respiratory Care Units / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D013597:Systems Analysis