Dashboard Metrics Evaluation Essay
Dashboard Metrics Evaluation Essay
Dashboard Metrics Evaluation Essay
Dashboard Metrics Evaluation
To the Director of Safety Compliance
Benchmark evaluation is a tool used to measure organizational outcomes and performance and identify areas that require improvement. Organizational dashboard metrics are used to gauge the organization’s performance based on the available benchmarks, thus identifying well-performing and underperforming metrics, therefore informing quality improvement initiatives and interventions. I have reviewed and evaluated an institution’s compliance with set diabetes measures using the institution’s dashboard data and identified performing and underperforming benchmarks. This report presents an evaluation of the diabetes dashboard data of Mercy Medical Center. The report will entail evaluating the benchmark data, challenges in meeting the benchmark can pose to the organization, benchmark underperformance areas, areas that the institution needs to improve, and a proposal for an ethical action that stakeholders can use in the organization to improve benchmark underperformance.
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Organizational and Setting Description
The institution of focus in this evaluation is Mercy Medical Center. It is a Villa health-affiliated hospital located in Shakopee, Minnesota. The institutions serve over 30,000 patients from different races across all health populations. It is a top-choice healthcare institution renowned for high healthcare quality. Some of the most common races of patients served in the institution include Asians, Whites, Hispanics-Latinos, and African Americans. The specific department that will be evaluated is the endocrinology department. The benchmarks of focus will include data regarding diabetes in the institution.
Evaluation of Dashboard Metrics
According to the institution’s public health dashboard-in diabetes, 563 new diabetes patients were served in the last quarter of 2020. The factors essential in diabetes management include age, gender, and race. The diabetic patients’ age distribution is 118 patients who are 20 years and below, 51 patients between ages 21-39, 214 patients between ages 40-64, and 180 patients 65 years and above. The percentages for this distribution are 21%, 9%, 38%, and 32% for ages, respectively (Villa Health, n.d.). The patients’ distribution by gender is 214 males, 38%, and 347 females 62%. The distribution by race is as follows; African Americans-3%, American Indians-13%, Asians-6%, Whites 63%, and others-2%, while 13% of the patients declined to provide their racial background (Villa Health, n.d).
Furthermore, the institution has set forth measures of effective diabetes management, which are also used to gauge the organizational performance and quality of healthcare services. Diabetes interventions and measures include eye exams, diabetic foot exams, and HbA1c tests. These measures are evaluated quarterly. From the dashboard, it is noted that the number of patients taking these tests fluctuates significantly. For instance, in the last quarter of 2020, out of 563 patients, only 64, 64, and 62 patients took the HbA1c tests, Eye exams, and Foot exams, respectively.
Benchmarks Set Forth by the Local, State or Federal Laws/Policies
Mercy Medical Center is keen on internal and external benchmarking, in which the results are used to facilitate learning, quality improvement, and performance evaluation. According to De Rosis, Cerasuolo & Nuti (2020), an internal benchmarking tool may include patients reported measures and compare performance measures in different timelines, such as different quarters, to identify in which quarter the institution did better than the other. External benchmarking is also done using local, state, and federal laws and policies to inform practice improvement and align the institution’s activities with contributing towards meeting healthcare needs.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is one of the organizations the institution uses for external benchmarking. The agency works with the government and other associations, such as the American diabetes association, to prepare benchmark tools and strategies used as benchmark evaluation dashboards. These dashboards aim to direct healthcare institutions and systems to provide high-quality care, promote patient safety, and maintain values in healthcare services (AHRQ, n.d.). The AHRQ prepares and releases a National Healthcare Quality and Disparities report annually, which Mercy Medical Center also uses as an external benchmark tool. The report not only the current health disparities in healthcare among various populations but also provides recommendations on the various measures to ensure desirable patient outcomes in different health conditions. For instance, the AHQR notes that the current national health quality and disparities report of 2019 recommended that above 80% of diabetes patients take HbA1c tests annually, above 84% g for diabetes foot exams, and 75% go for eye exams annually (AHRQ, n.d.). However, gauging from the percentages of patients going for diabetic foot exams and eye exams and taking HbA1c tests in the institution annually, it is evident that the institution is performing below the prescribed benchmarks. One of the areas of uncertainty in the evaluation is that the data does not provide specific patient characteristics such as age, gender, and ethnicity for the patients going for diabetic foot exams, eye exams, and taking HbA1c tests. The information would improve evaluation results and better inform improvement initiatives by identifying the specific group of patients to focus on.
Consequences of not meeting Prescribed Benchmarks
Not meeting the prescribed benchmarks has various consequences, considerably impacting healthcare organizations and teams. According to Wong et al. (2020), healthcare institutions that cannot meet prescribed benchmarks may face quality and reputation problems. Since performance is described from some benchmark evaluations, failure to meet them translates to poor performance, which may negatively affect the organization’s reputation. According to De Silva et al. (2021), other implications of failure to meet the benchmark include demotivation of the healthcare team. Challenges that might have contributed to benchmark underperformance are inadequate emphasis on diabetes health promotion and patient education to inform the patients on the importance of eye, diabetic foot exams, and HbA1c tests to keep track of their progress and prevent complications.
Benchmark Underperformance Evaluation
The primary benchmark underperformance in this evaluation is the low turn-up for diabetic foot exams, eye exams, and HbA1c tests. These tests are significant to diabetes patients since they help identify diabetes complications early enough and address them as soon as possible (Nano et al., 2020). The benchmark underperformance negatively impacts the health of patients and the community due to increased diabetes complications, diabetes-related hospitalizations, and hospital readmissions. The healthcare team can use this underperformance as an improvement opportunity to promote health and educate diabetic patients, thus enhancing diabetes management and preventing complications.
Ethical and Sustainable Action Required to Address the Benchmark Underperformance
The essence of benchmark evaluations is seen when they are followed up with ethical and sustainable actions to address identified benchmark underperformances. The stakeholders addressing the benchmark underperformances for Mercy Medical Center include endocrinologists, nurses, dieticians, social workers, and community health workers. These stakeholders will address the benchmark underperformances by encouraging diabetes patients to embrace diabetes management best practices, including going for annual eye exams, diabetic food exams, and taking HbA1c tests. The ethical principles of consideration in action include confidentiality and privacy in patient education. The sustainable goal for the benchmark underperformance is a maintained increased number of patients taking HbA1c tests and going for eye and diabetic foot exams annually.
Conclusion
The report above has helped us understand the performance of Mercy Medical Center against the set benchmarks. It shows that the institution is underperforming in some critical areas, such as the number of patients taking diabetes foot exams. The report has also proposed an ethical action that can be used to address the underperforming benchmark. The stakeholders identified should work towards improving the underperforming benchmarks and therefore improve care delivery for diabetes patients.
References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, (n.d). Practice Improvement. Retrieved 14th March 2023 from https://www.ahrq.gov/practiceimprovement/index.html
De Rosis, S., Cerasuolo, D., & Nuti, S. (2020). Using patient-reported measures to drive change in healthcare: the experience of the digital, continuous and systematic PREMs observatory in Italy. BMC Health Services Research, 20, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05099-4
De Silva, K., Lim, S., Mousa, A., Teede, H., Forbes, A., Demmer, R. T., Jönsson, D., & Enticott, J. (2021). Nutritional markers of undiagnosed type 2 diabetes in adults: Findings of a machine learning analysis with external validation and benchmarking. PloS One, 16(5), e0250832. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250832
Nano, J., Carinci, F., Okunade, O., Whittaker, S., Walbaum, M., Barnard-Kelly, K., Barthelmes, D., Benson, T., Calderon-Margalit, R., Dennaoui, J., Fraser, S., Haig, R., Hernández-Jimenéz, S., Levitt, N., Mbanya, J. C., Naqvi, S., Peters, A. L., Peyrot, M., Prabhaharan, M., Pumerantz, A. & Diabetes Working Group of the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) (2020). A standard set of person-centered outcomes for diabetes mellitus: results of an international and unified approach. Diabetic medicine: a journal of the British Diabetic Association, 37(12), 2009–2018. https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.14286
Villa Health. (n.d). Dashboard and Healthcare Benchmark Evaluation. Capella University.
Wong, T., Brovman, E. Y., Rao, N., Tsai, M. H., & Urman, R. D. (2020). A Dashboard Prototype for Tracking the Impact of Diabetes on Hospital Readmissions Using a National Administrative Database. Journal of Clinical Medicine Research, 12(1), 18–25. https://doi.org/10.14740/jocmr4029
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Attached is the rubrics/instructions
Organization name is Mercy Medical Center located in Shakopee, MN.
Following is an example from another paper
After evaluation of the dashboard, several aspects have been noted with the patient records and trends in the organization. Two major areas of concern can be seen in this data; low HgbA1c tests and foot exam rates. The highest number of foot exam rates indicated in the dashboard was 73 in 2019 Q1 and this declined to only 3 in Q4 of the same year (Vila Health, n.d.). HgbA1c test rates have also declined notably from 123 in 2019 Q1 to only 6 in Q4 (Vila Health, n.d.).
These tests are important in monitoring glycemic control as well as diabetes complications and hence the decline in testing rates presents a major health concern. The tests are considered crucial in preventing diabetes complications and hence decline in the rates of tests shows poor outcomes.Benchmark Underperformance Dashboard Metrics Example
When comparing these two areas of assessment with the state and national benchmarks, it is evident that they fail to meet the benchmark for both state and national outcomes. The numbers provided in the dashboard have not indicated percentages hence a major assumption made here is that the highest number is the total of diabetes patients. Assuming that the total number of patients is 123, only 6 (48.7%) received the HgbA1c tests in Q4 2019 compared to the national benchmark of 79.5%.
The state benchmark for Minnesota is 78.0% hence HgbA1c tests fall below both benchmarks (AHRQ, 2020). Similarly, in foot examinations, only 3 (24.4%) were examined in 2019 Q4 which falls below the national benchmark of 84.0% and Minnesota benchmark of 84.1% (AHRQ, 2020). Therefore, when compared with the state and national rates, testing for diabetes-related complications at Mercy Medical fails to meet the required benchmarks.Benchmark Underperformance Dashboard Metrics Example
