As the healthcare industry faces an uncertain future, most providers will tackle a reinforced imperative for efficient and effective performance as they prepare for an overall tightening of operating margins. As the industry works to address the realities and the uncertainties of the regulatory and market changes ahead, the success of their performance initiatives is ever more critical.

Performance improvement programs aren’t new. But ask any hospital leader who has overseen a performance improvement initiative about what they'd do differently, and what you’re going to hear is this:

1.      Establish clear goals

2.      Secure executive buy-in

3.      Actionable data

Performance improvement initiatives are supposed to help you understand which levers to pull. But without any of these 3 ingredients, it’s a pretty safe bet performance improvement initiatives will suffer in the face of questions about data accuracy and resistance to change among staff and physicians.

We’ve got some great examples of hospitals and health systems who’ve embraced this recipe and are leveraging our hospital benchmarking solution. One of these organizations - UnityPoint Health – has given us the OK to share some interviews conducted with key leadership sponsors of its new performance improvement initiative.

They provide a terrific look behind the curtain at how hospitals view performance improvement in relationship to strategic objectives, and the factors which shape their decision.

Check out the interviews with the CEO, CFO and Chief Analytics Officer here.