Select indicators that are useful for measuring physician performance

Years ago, the only choice medical staffs and hospitals had when selecting performance measures was to create their own indicators. Today, many national indicators are available to hospitals, including measurements required by The Joint Commission and CMS. However, even with the availability of these national measures, not all of them are useful for measuring physician competency and addressing the six general competencies. The following criteria will help guide your selection and prioritization of indicators for your medical staff:

• Relevancy: Is it relevant to physician performance?
• Competency: Does it relate to an important expectation?
• Type: What type of indicator (i.e., review, rule, or rate) would be most appropriate?
• Data source: Should the data come from clinical documentation, incident reports, or perception surveys?
• Attribution: Can it measure individual physician performance with reasonable reliability and accuracy, or is it effective only when measuring the performance of the medical staff or specialty as a group?
• Availability: How readily can the data be accessed?
• Benefit: Is the cost of the measure worth the improvement benefit?