What we do and how to measure it.

If hospital administrators are to monitor and improve productivity, they must first develop a common, accurate measure of work output. Previously used output measures have failed in one of three ways: 1. By measuring only inpatient (discharges) or outpatient (visits) data. 2. By measuring the process of patient care rather than output (as is the case with occupancy or patient days statistics). 3. By mixing an output variable like discharges with a charge strategy variable like outpatient revenue to develop a mongrel statistic such as equivalent discharges. This article proposes a new statistic, the Composite Patient Encounter (CPE), which equates outpatient care to inpatient care by measuring the production cost associated with each. The composite patient encounter statistic was derived from actual data and tested against other variables to determine which was most suitable as an overall output measure. The results indicate that CPEs are most accurate in reflecting overall hospital activity.