Use of the balanced scorecard in health care

Abstract

Since Kaplan and Norton published their article proposing a balanced scorecard, the concept has been widely adopted by industry and health care provider organizations. This article reviews the use of the balanced scorecard in health care and concludes that the balanced scorecard: (1) is relevant to health care, but modification to reflect industry and organizational realities is necessary; (2) is used by a wide range of health care organizations; (3) has been extended to applications beyond that of strategic management; (4) has been modified to include perspectives, such as quality of care, outcomes, and access; (5) increases the need for valid, comprehensive, and timely information; and (6) has been used by two large-scale efforts across many health care organizations in a health care sector, which differ, namely in the units of analysis, purposes, audiences, methods, data, and results.