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. 2017 Aug 3;17(1):522.
doi: 10.1186/s12913-017-2479-6.

Balanced performance measurement in research hospitals: the participative case study of a haematology department

Simona Catuogno  1 , Claudia Arena  2 , Sara Saggese  3 , Fabrizia Sarto  3
Affiliations

Balanced performance measurement in research hospitals: the participative case study of a haematology department

Simona Catuogno et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Background: The paper aims to review, design and implement a multidimensional performance measurement system for a public research hospital in order to address the complexity of its multifaceted stakeholder requirements and its double institutional aim of care and research.

Method: The methodology relies on a participative case study performed by external researchers in close collaboration with the staff of an Italian research hospital.

Results: The paper develops and applies a customized version of balanced scorecard based on a new set of performance measures. Our findings suggest that it can be considered an effective framework for measuring the research hospital performance, thanks to a combination of generalizable and context-specific factors.

Conclusions: By showing how the balanced scorecard framework can be customized to research hospitals, the paper is especially of interest for complex healthcare organizations that are implementing management accounting practices. The paper contributes to the body of literature on the application of the balanced scorecard in healthcare through an examination of the challenges in designing and implementing this multidimensional performance tool. This is one of the first papers that show how the balanced scorecard model can be adapted to fit the specific requirements of public research hospitals.

Keywords: Balanced scorecard; Case study; Performance measurement system; Research hospital.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The authors declare that the formal ethics approval is not needed. They confirm that the study complies with the Italian Legislative Decree 30/06/2003, n. 196, and its later modifications. Moreover, they declare that the consent to participate to the study is not required as sensitive data have been collected anonymously.

Consent for publication

The authors declare that data collection and analysis followed the Legislative Decree 08/06/2001, n 231, that is the Italian national law regulating the access to and the use of public data by public administrations, hospitals, and other public institutions.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
From the strategic map to the BSC
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Application of BSC to the RH
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Map of relationships among KPIs
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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