Hitting and Missing Targets by Ambulance Services for Emergency Calls - Article Example

Performance Measurement and Control Table of Contents Hitting and missing targets by ambulance services for emergency calls: effects of different systems of performance within UK 2 Core arguments of the article: 2 Contribution to the academic literature: 3 Reflection of conventional or contemporary techniques of performance measurement: 3 Whether information provided are in favor of or against: 4 Behavioral Implications: 4 Ethical Implications: 5 Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend? 6 Core arguments of the article: 6 Contribution to the academic literature: 6 Reflection of conventional or contemporary techniques of performance measurement: 6 Whether information provided are in favor of or against: 7 Behavioral Implications: 7 Ethical Implications: 7 References 9 Hitting and missing targets by ambulance services for emergency calls: effects of different systems of performance within UK Core arguments of the article: The main argument is regarding the issue related to the lack of response to the emergency calls to hospitals for sending ambulance. The ignorance to the emergency calls has resulted in the reduction in the mortality rate. This problem resides in all UK countries. The problem of not responding to life threatening calls has gone so high that an initiation of ‘star rating’ was started in England. However, this system did not turn out to be effective for other countries in UK because the target set was missed by huge margins leading to the failure of the ‘star rating’ system. Thus the study argues that further research be made to chose a system that would be appropriate in determining the measurement of performance of the hospital industry. Another argument of discussion is the compensation of damage in case of failure to meet with the target of performance measurement. Contribution to the academic literature: Had this article not been published we would not have been aware of the fact that negligence of government even resides in countries like UK especially in the field of healthcare to the fact of reduction in the mortality rate to a great extent. It is further known that effect of different types of performance measurement had made it a compulsion to take life threatening emergency calls with a maximum time of 8 minutes. This process was termed as the ambulance response times. Due to the heavy negligence in the part of the government a particular ‘internal market’ was created for those failing to keep up to the standard of ‘star rating’ system in the form of financial coercion by the way of putting services of the local crowd at stake. Reflection of conventional or contemporary techniques of performance measurement: The reflection of the conventional method can be seen through the implementation of the ‘star rating’ system and the balanced scorecard system. In the ‘star rating’ system score was given ranging from zero to three stars to the health organization trust based on their performance against the set of key targets. Failing the achievement of these targets resulted in the huge penalization of the health organization trust. The health organization getting zero-rated runs at the risk of the chief executive losing their job for the underperformance of his assigned work. Nevertheless, like all other conventional measurements this technique also has some loopholes, which were not taken care of before the implementation of the concerned system. Therefore, the consequences were focused on avoiding the causes of problem of measuring is the main criteria as the performance of the public health care organization is quite different from the performance of the private health care organization. Secondly, the selection of the service thus provided. Nature of measurement has to be a unique one, which can be applicable to any given condition, is another problem here as the system is not a standard one. Next, by giving punishment for not achieving a target is not the way to get the work done; thus too much of aggregation for ranking. Gaming is the cause of great concern for the organization. The morale of the staff gets highly affected by labeling hospitals as ‘failing’. Another conventional technique thus adopted was the balanced scorecard method. In this method, the mission of the organization functions towards the formation of the strategic principle for the key areas of business. The main purpose of this method is management of the organizational performance. Both the lead indicators and the lag indicators employed, for the measurement of the organizational performance. However, as said above some disadvantages also follow in this case as well different judgment being passed on different outcome of the result on the same ground (Bevan & Hamblin, 2009, pp.161-190) Whether information provided are in favor of or against: The information thus provided gives us a vivid idea that the negligence in the part of the government specially in the emergency service line, where attending calls within a span of 8minutes is a compulsion failing which the staff will be penalized to the extent of losing the job. Even the employed moral gets hampered to with the labeling of a failing organization. According to the analysis made based on the above situation, such stringent measures should not have been taken because the main motive is to make the emergency service of the health department more efficient. Thus, such steps should be taken so that the employing gets the enthusiasm to perform better in the hope of earning higher incentives. Again failing of the given job should also be in monitory terms like cut in the salary or so; as salary is the main motivational factor for any individual involved in the job. Moreover, feeling of humanity should be inculcated in order to understand the importance of an emergency to that of a patient. Lastly, the measurement of performance through balanced scorecard should be further modified in order to account for the performance which otherwise gets unnoticed. Behavioral Implications: Through behavioral implication, we mean the positive or negative impact of a situation along with the steps taken for or against it. Here we can see the negative behavioral implication of negligence of the government of UK. This behavioral implication helped the UK government to improve performance in the emergency health service by 60%. Thus based on the behavioral implication the actions, which are undertaken, may turn out to be fruitful for the organization Ethical Implications: Though after many considerations the negligence of the government in the area of emergency service of the health department has been detected to some extent in some areas of UK yet some ethical question arises which goes against the government. Thus if ethical implications are to be considered then the approaches thus adopted like the ‘star rating’ is not ethical in its approach in the sense that is does not take the major problem of gaming into consideration. Moreover this approach is very much contradictory on the humanitarian ground, because on one hand attending of the emergency calls are being looked after with due diligence but on the other lowering the morality of the working staff due to negative gradation and causing the loss of job of the chief executive. Following are few of the queries that the author needs to cater to in order to stimulate further discussion on the above topic: Is the timing set for response to an emergency case related to health an appropriate one? Why was the failure in most important sector of the UK government not taken care of before? What was the reason behind the delay in the time taken for investigation? Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend? Core arguments of the article: Sustainability accounting is not considered a valid form of accounting but sustainability accounting is used in various sectors to carry out different accounting functions. Thus through the study we get to know that the current developments that has taken place in sustainable accounting and reporting. The determination of the various forms of sustainable accounting can help in the formulation of critical and managerial paths in future. Contribution to the academic literature: Sustainability accounting is very useful in the field of analyzing and reporting as well as collecting and identifying information related mainly to the economic, social and environmental issues related to the organization. It even helps the management to take decisions that are beyond the purview of financial and management accounting. Many of the important stocks are based on the principle of sustainability accounting, for example Dow Jones, Australian SAM to name a few. Thus from the above study we can interpret that sustainability accounting though reject a labeled as ‘fad’ it is one of the main criteria leading to the important managerial decisions being taken by the top-notch industries in the world. Therefore, from the given article we can get an idea that the application regarding the idea of sustainability is wrongly portrayed as fad when it should literally be called a trend in its true sense. Reflection of conventional or contemporary techniques of performance measurement: The concept of sustainability is debatable on the following three approaches namely, inside-out approach, outside-in approach, twin-track approach. In the inside-out approach helps in measuring the probable development that has occurred within the business environment reflecting the core values of the organization provided through sustainability report. Whereas the outside-in approach is designed for the measurement of the sustainability, performance resulted from the external regulations or guidelines, which are responsible for the activities carried out by the organization. However, twin-track is the meeting point of inside out approach and outside in approach. Here in the initial step it takes care of the environmental area through the process of eco-control. In twin-track approach, monitoring of the environmental rules and regulation takes place as to whether they are in compliance or not. Motivation of the employees for the purpose of continuous improvement is another task undertaken by twin-track approach. It also helps in providing useful data for the decision making purpose of the organization and is responsible for providing data for external reporting (Burrit & Schaltegger , 2010, p.829-843) Whether information provided are in favor of or against: The information thus provided on the debatable topic of sustainable accounting is in favor of it behind the backdrop of negative consequences. The discussion of the topic of sustainability accounting research and practice is divided into two paths where in the initial path also known as the critical path shows the problem encountered through the application of the sustainability accounting method. This helps in the arousing the awareness of the attention to the focus area. In the second part that is, also known as the managerial path is where the solutions to the main problems are provided thus helping to support managerial decisions in diverse circumstances by different managers as well as stakeholders. The logical reasoning in both the part indicates that sustainability accounting is capable of building awareness, which helps in the problem solving exercise. Behavioral Implications: The action whether adverse or favorable in response to any internal or external condition is known as behavioral implication that is observed in an organization. The behavioral implication in the related article that we can summarize is that the application of the sustainability accounting is negative in the sense that as far as the corporate sustainability is not useful as far as the core financial aspects are taken into consideration. Nevertheless, in case of the managerial perspective managerial decision-making is supported by the sustainability accounting and reporting. Thus, we can observe both the positive as well as negative traits of behavioral implication from the concerned article. Ethical Implications: Ethical implications infer anything that is discriminatory by the law of the residing country. The ethical implication with respect to the above article from the viewpoint of the critical theorist is that the implementation of corporate sustainability accounting is the root cause behind the arousal of the corporate sustainability and is thus considered a fad. Again, in the management-oriented path sustainability accounting is highly recognized because the implementation of the same helps the organization to take efficient managerial decision-making. Thus through the study of the above article an analysis can be made that both the implications are justified as they are meant for different situational conditions. However, sustainability accounting and reporting is concerned its ethical implication is in the field of managerial decision-making and problem solving. Following are few of the queries that the author needs to cater to in order to stimulate further discussion on the above topic: What kind of problems in the managerial level can be solved by the application of sustainability accounting and reporting? Managerial decision made on the basis of sustainability accounting that is continuously neglected in conventional accounting is an effective one or not? References Bevan G. & Hamblin, R., 2009. Hitting and missing targets by ambulance services for emergency calls: effects of different systems of performance measurement within the UK. London School of Economics and Political Science, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 172, Part 1, pp.161-190. Burrit R. L. & Schaltegger, S., 2010. Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend? School of Commerce, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, Accounting, Auditing and accountability Journal, Vol.23 Iss: 7, pp.829-846. Read More