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As part of BWH’s continuous improvement efforts, the Performance, Measurement and Analysis Group (PMAG) of the Center for Clinical Excellence has begun to roll out a balanced scorecard initiative, with the support of Information Systems. The scorecard will serve as a performance measurement and management framework to define, align and communicate strategy effectiveness at all levels of BWH, from senior management to front-line staff.
The hospital-wide scorecard and the individual department scorecards will focus on four areas:
Scorecards for each major department will include department-specific goals related to these four areas.
“BWH is leading the industry by implementing this full-scale innovative project,” said Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, BWH president. Instead of solely focusing on financial or tangible asset measures to judge performance, the new scorecard project uniquely combines them with intangible markers, such as employee satisfaction, patient safety and customer service.
Along with each department’s scorecard, a strategy map will be created. The diagram will display the four perspectives of organizational performance (listed, p.1), the goals within each perspective, and the linkages between different goals.
The project is Intranet-based and will deliver information on a monthly basis, so progress can be noted more frequently than other benchmarking tools used by BWH.
For now, pilot scorecards are being implemented in Surgery and Finance. Training has begun and implementation will follow shortly. Next steps include a Nursing scorecard and finalizing the hospital-wide scorecard.
Last January, BWH signed a four-year contract with SAS, a global leader in software, to assist with this project. According to Michael Gustafson, MD, MBA, executive director of the Center for Clinical Excellence and executive co-sponsor for this project, getting the Balanced Scorecard project off the ground has been three years in the making. Gustafson and Sue Schade, BWH chief information officer, are joined by a team of staff from the Information Systems Department and Center for Clinical Excellence for the scorecard creation, training and implementation.
The advanced software associated with this project allows for sorting data and running reports by department or division. “We have the ability to provide a greater number of people with information specific to their area, so more individuals can assess their own performance and take ownership in meeting goals,” said Gustafson.
“The cascading feature of this project allows us to attribute performance to senior leadership, management, a specific nursing pod, an assigned committee, a surgeon, or other group or individual. This is helpful in acknowledging front-line staff for a job well done. Also, being able to identify where in the system areas of opportunity exist helps us create better, more targeted solutions,” said Nancy Kruger, vice president, Patient Care Services.