Balanced scorecard method for healthcare quality improvement: A critical analysis

Abstract

Throughout the world there is an on-going effort to determine quality in healthcare settings. The very definition of “quality”, particularly in healthcare, is rather elusive. The aim of this critique is to analyze the Balance Scorecard method to measure quality as it relates to patient safety in healthcare organisations. Analysis of the Balanced Scorecard in this context determined that the objectivity, both in its measurements and its ability to link together the organization’s quality and financial goals, is indeed beneficial. However, this methodology was also found to be unduly focused on systems and administration rather than on the actual health and safety of patients. The result is a tool that measures “quality” in financial and organizational terms, as sought by healthcare management, and this will continue to be the case until there is a fundamental shift towards defining quality of healthcare in terms of the patients that utilize healthcare services.