Achieving superior productivity.

Hospitals need to analyze, develop, and implement realistic, effective productivity standards. The first step in a productivity analysis is to collect performance data for each hospital department. A workload measure should be assigned to every department. Comparing historical performance data for each department highlights problem areas. Gaining executive commitment and department manager acceptance is essential to productivity-improvement initiatives. Even in departments that experience a change in function, historical data can be used to monitor performance and determine where improvement is needed. A weighting system can be employed to capture historical data and establish a standard against which to measure future performance.