Ensuring the validity of labor productivity benchmarking.
Limitations of high-level metrics, such as FTEs per adjusted occupied bed, can cause them to be misleading when used to compare a hospital's labor productivity with that of peers. Rather than serving as the sole basis for management decisions, these metrics should be used as a means to determine whether a department-level productivity assessment is warranted. When using an outpatient conversion factor (OCF) for such a benchmarking analysis, the hospital's OCF should be comparable to the median OCF of the comparison group of hospitals. Similarly, when a case mix index (CMI) adjustment is used, the analysis should allow for differences between the hospital's CMI and the median CMI of the comparison group.
FTI Consulting, Brentwood, Tenn., USA. mo.kirtane@fticonsulting.com
Mo
M
Kirtane
D019985:Benchmarking / Q000592:standards*; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D010557:Personnel Administration, Hospital; D015203:Reproducibility of Results