5 Key Performance Indicators in Healthcare to Track

KPIs, or key performance indicators (in healthcare settings), are the metrics that assess an organization’s overall performance. They help facility leaders gauge care quality and operational mastery, and are becoming increasingly important as reimbursement models shift toward a value-based system (as opposed to focusing on volume).

If you’re looking to improve your strategic use of these data points — or need help picking key metrics to begin tracking — we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll provide you with a brief overview by answering common questions before giving our top five KPIs for initial data strategies. With our expert-backed insights into this specific type of functional analysis, you’ll be better prepared to stay ahead of healthcare’s constant flux and shifting payment models.

What Are Key Performance Indicators in Healthcare?

The simplest definition of key performance indicators, in healthcare, is that they are quantifiable measurements that gauge the performance of an organization (or subgroup, like nursing). This data-backed review process drives institutions past the antiquated idea that healthcare is simply an undefinable art, and into the realm of science, where KPIs are guiding an objective approach to clinical processes, management, and oversight.

Are There Different Types of Healthcare KPIs?

Healthcare facilities are multifaceted, and assessing their institutional quality and viability requires a multi-pronged approach to KPI tracking. Departmental focuses are unique, and their specific quality indicators need to reveal the efficiency (or caliber) of those focal points. For example, the quality of patient care can be objectively tracked through a number of different indicators, including:

• Healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rate
• Adverse event occurrences (like patient falls)
• Mortality rate
• Hospital readmission rates

Some of these (like hospital readmission rates) may share cross-functional significance with other KPI categories — specifically, operational review. Overlaps aside, different aspects of a healthcare organization have their own key indicators for tracking performance. We’ll review some of those different KPI categories (and examples) below.

What Are KPI (in Healthcare) Value Adds?

Harnessing data to accurately target healthcare issues is an excellent example of meaningful use. Electronic health records (EHRs) generate a lot of data. By assigning KPI metrics, you can make the most of that information to drive better, more efficient operations. Whether it’s prolonged wait times, or an increasing prevalence of contract nurses vs. full-time employees, KPI patterns and trends can help organizations address patient and staff concerns more promptly, while navigating larger system-wide changes (like shifting reimbursement criteria).

The growing push for value-based payment models has made the importance of KPI in healthcare strategies more apparent than ever. By tracking verifiable data, organizations can better understand and address their strengths (or weaknesses) that impact both quality and compensation rates.

Example:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) reimburses facilities that care for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients if certain patient safety measures are maintained. By following bloodstream infection KPI data among ESRD patients, a hemodialysis unit (or facility) can more quickly respond to data patterns that show an issue with current infection control processes. This will not only help them improve HAI rates by addressing safety concerns and improving precaution measures, it will also optimize reimbursement rates.

What Are the 5 Key Performance Indicators in Healthcare Facilities Must Track?

The answer to this question will vary depending on the type of healthcare facility and organizational goals. For example, if you work in healthcare finance, one of your priority KPIs will be the rate of claims rejections. Or, if extended LOS metrics are jeopardizing reimbursements, that should be designated a top KPI concern.

Below, we’ll list the five KPIs that we think should be prioritized within a general approach to improving the quality of nursing care (and the interrelated patient experience). We’ll also provide examples of the different metrics that may contribute to each (cumulative) KPI tracker.

Average Patient Wait Times

There are numerous ways that a patient can experience a wait, but those shared experiences contribute significantly to their overall satisfaction with care. Not only that, but this metric often reveals issues like care plan and treatment delays that can compromise patient outcomes.

Specific wait time KPI examples:

• An ambulatory surgical setting may track the wait time from admission until the surgery start time.
• Inpatient settings may track the wait time between admission orders and transfers out of the emergency department.

Staff Turnover Rate

Not only is nursing turnover extremely costly, it also impacts safe staffing levels and nurse job satisfaction. When there aren’t enough nurses to effectively manage the workload, the quality of clinical care goes down. By tracking this KPI, nurse managers can better address the reasons for nursing turnover, maintaining safety and quality through sustainable staffing.

Specific staffing KPI examples:

• A facility tracks turnover quarterly by dividing the number of nurses who left at the end of the quarter by the total number of employed nurses at the beginning of the quarter.
• Another unit monitors staffing fluctuations by measuring retention, tracking the number of nurses who remain at the end of each bi-annual review period, and dividing against the beginning number of nurse employees.

Rate of Adverse Event Occurrences

An adverse event is an incident that causes (or risks) harm to a patient. These sorts of events can be fatal (like a sentinel event and some so-called, never events) or more mild occurrences, like an x-ray performed on the wrong patient. Tracking these important patient safety indicators can help target staff education, training, and practice considerations, to drive a culture of safety and reduce care-related risks.

Specific adverse event KPI examples:

• Medication error rates can be calculated by ensuring a just culture that allows nurses to report medication errors (or near misses). Patterns in these errors may help direct new, safer administration practices.
• Patient falls are a frequent KPI across many healthcare settings, from hospital units to nursing homes. These incidences may be tracked as falls with injury, or without.

Hospital-Aquired Condition Rates

Hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) are the quality indicators most commonly referred to within healthcare settings. They make up many of the official National Database for Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI), and can reveal the effectiveness of current nursing practices by providing substantive data around patient wellbeing and outcomes.

Specific HAC KPI examples:

• Hospital-acquired pressure ulcer data may indicate that patients aren’t being repositioned according to protocol and skincare best practice.
• Ventilator-associated pneumonia is one of the top 10 most common healthcare-associated infections and can reveal compliance with infection prevention measures.

Average Patient Satisfaction Scores

Although many of the other KPI scores will contribute to your sense of this final indicator, carefully reviewing the patients’ own described experiences is essential. Objective indicators (like average wait time) don’t always mirror the patient’s subjective perspective. Gathering their feedback as a prioritized KPI signals that you value their engagement and are working to provide truly person-centered care.

Specific feedback KPI examples:

• Use formal patient experience surveys and average the received data to reflect how your organization is performing from the (overall) patient perspective.
• Don’t be afraid to use informal rating data, like social media scores or reviews. Many give reviewers the option to use a starred system, which will still assist your efforts for objective data.

Looking for Innovative Ways to Improve Your Patients’ Experiences?

Quality initiatives focused on patient safety often require objective analysis of key performance indicators in healthcare. Nursing leaders don’t have to stop there, though. Use IntelyCare’s wide range of facility guides and tips to continue innovating on behalf of the best possible patient experience.