Performance Management at National Health Service - Case Study Example

Performance Management Name: Course: Institution: Tutor: Performance Management at NHS Introduction The National Health Service (NHS) is an umbrella body for three publicly funded health care systems in the United Kingdom. These health care systems are funded through general taxation and provide a wide range of comprehensive health services for the people. As NHS’s operations have become more complicated, the body increasingly uses business systems to evaluate and measure performance as a matter of ongoing concern. A wide range of performance indicators are being used by the National Health Service to evaluate and compare performance across NHS organizations. Primarily, these indicators focus on such important areas as length of patient stay in hospital, number of staff employed and cost per episode of patient. In these cases, efficiency within the service and clinical performance are assessed. In general, NHS’s performance management involves establishing rigorous, formal and regular systems of data collection and usage to determine trends and performance in health care services. NHS’s performance monitoring and management systems help health care facilities their business strategies, identify key performance indicators and align business objectives to long term strategies and hence deliver appropriate information for decision-making. Specifically, performance management helps NHS organizations to define performance targets in important areas of service delivery, which includes management and utilization of resources, financial viability and customer service. In addition, the performance management helps provide an accurate picture of organizational progress as regards achievement of goals and performance targets. This helps provide early indication of cost pressures and other emerging issues that may require immediate remedial actions. Regular performance monitoring and management also helps indicate areas with the potential to improve the organization cost-effectiveness (McAfee & Champagne, 2003). Critical Areas and Nature of Performance Management at NHS: What is being measured? For a long time, NHS regulatory guidelines have played a crucial role in dictating key areas of performance improvement for member organizations. As a result, organizations continue to gather increasing amount of data to determine performance improvement in organizational process and clinical outcomes. Nevertheless, most organizations are finding that they must improve their data collection methodologies so as to get access to information that can help them measure performance in a wider scope such as health care service, customer service delivery and operational and financial outcomes. Other important aspects that are being measured through NHS performance management program include mortality rates, day case rates, readmission rates and productivity and efficiency in service delivery. All these help organizations determine where healthcare services and process delivery can be improved or changed. Increased costs of health care service delivery as well as changes in health care trends are impacting greatly on the viability of health care systems. As a consequence, NHS organizations are now faced with complicated challenges of increasing the scope of service delivery and performance improvement. Not only do these organizations have to respond to challenges arising from day to day business operations but they also have to deal with increased requirements for regulatory and quality standards, increased patient expectations, and government and insurance changes. Health care organizations have now recognized the need to integrate accepted outcome management practices with comprehensive approach. The comprehensive approach takes into account a wider scope of performance indicators that impact directly and indirectly on the success of health care organizations (Halligan, Geert & Wouter, 2010). Challenges such as variation in service delivery among NHS organizations and frequent errors in health care delivery are some of the major areas of concern that are being addressed through NHS’s performance management systems. Any unresolved issues in these areas will ultimately affect health care outcomes for both the organization and their customers (patients). Currently, NHS performance management program is focused on quality improvement across all organizations and areas of service delivery. As a result, quality standards have been raised on multiple levels. It is thus necessary for healthcare organizations to adopt the new views of performance improvement so as to revive their approaches to performance management. In order to guarantee the success of modern healthcare performance management programs, healthcare organizations in the NHS have adopted the balanced approach of performance management. This approach encompasses performance improvement in all areas of an organization’s business operations and takes into consideration the specific needs of all stakeholders including patients. NHS has developed a highly balanced performance management system that is easy to align with healthcare facilities strategic focus. The system helps healthcare facilities to reinforce their strategic objectives by measuring things that are relevant and not just those that are easy to measure. The performance measures implemented by NHS provide valuable information, efficient planning and simplified decision making at all level of organizational management. The system allows for comprehensive performance management solutions including support for different types of measures including in operational and clinical areas (McAfee & Champagne, 2003). While most of NHS’s performance management includes financial and non-financial measures, indicators of past performance are highly valued. These indicators are used as predictors of future performance. Other important measures that are covered in NHS strategic performance management system include those covering important areas such as cost, quality and time. For instance, in addition to costs associated with providing healthcare and delivering services, key issues such as patient satisfaction, community perception, operational effectiveness, employee satisfaction and risk management are other important measures that help give a comprehensive view of performance management. One advantage of NHS performance management system is that it is easy to use and maintain. The ability to easily understand the various functionalities of the performance management system allows it to be implemented in different functional areas of an organization. The system is not only user-friendly but is also highly flexible to be used by healthcare managers and executives to quickly evaluate key areas of performance improvement so as to enhance planning and decision making. The ability for the system to be modified over the time will play a vital role in the success of organizations in the long run (Halligan, Geert & Wouter, 2010). Outcomes and Impact of NHS Performance Management Systems NHS properly executed performance management system has provided numerous benefits to healthcare facilities in the United Kingdom. In particular, healthcare facilitates in NHF have improved their alignment and strategic focus. In this way, day-to-day activities, decision making in health are service has been consistent with NHS strategic focus. Improved communication and performance feedback is an important outcome of NHS performance management program. Sharing of information between and within NHS facilities and with appropriate commentaries has greatly helped avoid confrontational situations that are characteristic of the traditional performance management approach. For individual facilities in NHS, this encourages better and equitable treatment of employees. All workers are able to receive appropriate feedback on performance and hence they can take corrective action as required. As such, the entire staff buys-in to the performance initiative. Through NHS performance management system, healthcare facilities have effectively implemented a standardized system of reporting. According to Rao (2008) using a standardized system of reporting can significantly reduce the need for wasteful ad hod investigations and reporting. Additionally, potential misinterpretations of information can also be reduced. The performance management system also ensures that all data is in one place. Indeed, NHS comprehensive performance management system can greatly reduce the need for learning how to use and understand the results and information generated by other systems. Since every stakeholder knows where to access data, the system becomes a focal point that contains the organization’s critical performance information. The ability of individual healthcare facilities and their workers to view relevant data and focus on critical areas of performance improvement enables remedial action to be taken before issues escalate into great problems. Since performance information can be presented in whatever time frame as need arise (weekly, daily or monthly) health care administrators will always have an updated view of performance progress. The decision by NHs to automate its performance management systems has greatly help save time and enhance decision making process. The process allows healthcare facilities to put results into context. As such, it is easy to monitor progress in all aspects of healthcare operations-from employee commitment, patient satisfaction and risk management to cost control and financial indicators. Moreover, healthcare organizations can effectively compare their performance with that of other organizations in key aspects of service delivery and hence evaluate how different areas match against similar operations. Ways of Translating Strategic Performance Management Measure into Appropriate Objectives for Frontline Workers There a number of approaches that can be taken by NHS healthcare facilities to translate strategic performance management measures into policy objectives for frontline workers. Some of these approaches include using the Balanced Scorecard, Executive Dashboards and Performance measures record sheet. All these approaches have one thing in common- they put the necessary emphasis on the need to measure organizational performance in ways that transcend the limits of traditional reporting systems. These approaches are particularly relevant to large institutions like the NHS because financial and human resource measures alone are not enough to define the success or failure of a health care organization (Rao, 2008). The Balanced Scorecard, if implemented well can play a critical role in performance management by helping organizations communicate vision and strategy to their workers and translate them into tangible measures and objectives. According to McAfee and Champagne (2003), the Balanced Scorecard helps organizations monitor and measure performance. It also helps organizations assign key performance indicators to areas of interest. This way, employees can track and optimize their productivity and performance based on the key performance indicators. In NHS, key performance indicators can help organizations focus beyond the traditional perspective of the bottom line. The approach helps ensure that employee satisfaction, customer service and sales and marketing functions are given the appropriate consideration in strategy implementation. The performance measures balance sheet is a valuable tool that can be used to help employees understand the purpose of measuring performance. The sheet helps organizations define key performance measures that are essential and the objectives that they relate to. It can also be used to measure performance progress in accordance with the set organizational goals. As a basic means of communicating performance progress in an organization, the performance measures balance sheet helps in tailoring performance measures to the unique challenges facing an organization. With a clear understanding of performance weaknesses and strengths, NHS facilities can focus their strategic resources and initiatives to areas that are in urgent need of improvement (McAfee & Champagne, 2003). By incorporating the principles of good governance and quality management into the traditional focus of clinical outcomes and financial management, NHS can put the necessary elements in place to manage performance across all organizations and give front-line workers a reason to work for improved organizational performance. This will also help front line workers maintain stead focus on performance management and to avoid the dangers of information overload, which implies too much data but little or no actionable information. In light of this consideration, it is important for NHS to put efforts in aligning strategic resources and activities to the strategic goals and objectives of organizations. It is also important to take measures to ensure that workers understand how they can contribute to the overall performance improvement of organizations. According to Rao (2008) clearly defined and balanced measures should be aligned to strategic objectives and be constantly communicated to workers. As changes continue to confront healthcare systems, facilities in the health care industry must put necessary measures in place in order to compete effectively for the future. As an example, patients are increasingly becoming more educated and can make well-informed decisions about their health outcomes. As such, NHS facilities must be able to differentiate their services, stay abreast of best and latest practices and communicate effectively and promptly to all stakeholders. This can be achieved by changing the attitudes and perceptions of frontline workers. In a way, the attitudes and perceptions of frontline workers can be changed positively by emphasizing on the importance of performance improvement in organizational processes and clinical outcomes. Equipping workers with the right knowledge and skills can help prevent draining of healthcare facility’s resources (McAfee & Champagne, 2003). It is equally important for NHS facilities to implement initiatives that can allow administrators ands staff to take performance evaluation of services provided and their impact on patient satisfaction and the overall effectiveness of the organizational process. Having the right view of success and performance measures, workers in these facilities can easily identify areas of improvement. This consideration should be integral to NHS facilities’ strategic planning initiatives and the ability to manage any changes necessary to be effective in the long run. A further step in translating strategic performance measures into objectives for frontline workers is to put performance measures in the context of NHS facilities strategic objectives. This can be achieved by aligning performance management systems with NHs strategic focus and by reinforcing the objectives of NHS in the facilities. This initiative can go a long way in providing valuable insights regarding steps that can be taken by frontline workers to yield improved decision making and efficient strategic planning. Considering NHS’s wide scope of operation and the large number of facilities that operate under it, a properly implemented performance management solution should be able to facilitate communication between various stakeholders including workers. This will encourage the workers to change their behavior in a manner that is consistent with NHS’ long term goals. References Halligan, J., Geert, B and Wouter, D 2010, Performance Management in the Public sector, New York, Taylor & Francis. McAfee, R & Champagne, P 2003, 'Performance management: A strategy for improving employee performance and productivity', Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol.8, pp. 24-33. Rao, T 2008, 'Lessons from Experience: A New Look at Performance Management Systems', Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, vol.33, pp.1-15. Read More