Hospital Performance Assessment: A Global Perspective.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Globally, healthcare has experienced unsustainable cost inflation. Therefore, innovative approaches must be considered to curb these ever-increasing costs. Hospitals, which play a central role in every healthcare system, contribute significantly to cost increases, largely through the acceleration of operational complexity. Such evolutionary phenomena have rendered Hospital Performance Assessments (HPA) vitally important to healthcare leaders, health service researchers, and policymakers, especially amid the current global revolution in value-based payments. This study aimed to examine the growing importance of HPA in hospital and healthcare system management and to propose the development of a comprehensive HPA framework.

Methods: We conducted a comprehensive literature review considering the historical and current frameworks and operational HPAs. This includes an overview of the most common quantitative methods, global and national health databases, and methodological integration into hospital performance assessments. We propose a new comprehensive framework to develop more effective HPAs.

Results: This study proposes a comprehensive framework that captures the intricate complexities of healthcare evolution that encompasses service area attributes, Hospital Attributes, the Organizational Processes and Managerial Technologies in place, and the measured Domains of Hospital Performance.

Conclusion: There is a critical need to develop innovative HPAs and associated assessment frameworks to facilitate researchers and leaders in studying and managing healthcare systems worldwide.