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Measuring operational effectiveness

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, May 6, 2008

There are varied metrics to evaluate the performance of a hospitalist program. One way administrators can accurately assess their program is to measure operational effectiveness. Along with hospitalists’ productivity and job satisfaction, managers can look at hospitalists’ responsiveness. These metrics may include:

• Response time to page
• How frequently the medical staff or hospital clinical staff complain about hospitalist responsiveness
• Number of incidents in which the time between when hospitalists are initially contacted to when they complete their admitting orders exceeds a pre-set target (e.g., one hour from ICU admission and two hours for routine admissions)
• Percentage of patients with discharge orders written prior to target time (e.g., 11 a.m.)
• How often hospitalists accept regional transfers
• Hospitalists’ use of computerized physician order entry (CPOE)
• Clarity of handwriting
• Hospitalists’ timeliness in completing charges
• Percentage of admission notes hospitalists dictate at the time of service
• Percentage of discharge notes hospitalists dictate at the time of service
• Quality of clinical documentation to support optimal hospital diagnosis-related group (DRG) coding

The above is an except from The Hospitalist Program Management Guide, Second Edition, written by Jeffrey R. Dichter, MD, FACP and Kenneth G. Simone, DO.

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