Top 25 Healthcare KPIs and Measurement Examples for 2024 Reporting (2024)

What is a healthcare KPI?

What is a KPI?A Key Performance Indicator or healthcare metric is a well-defined performance measure used to observe, analyze, optimize and transform a healthcare process to increase the satisfaction of both patients and healthcare providers. These metrics are often used by healthcare institutions to compare their performance with other healthcare institutions and identify areas for improvement.

This post explains why you should use health KPIs, what are the top 25 health KPIs and metrics to use in your 2023 reporting, how each KPI is calculated, and how to get ahealthcare dashboardto streamline your reporting process.

Why your company should use health-specific KPIs

Today, healthcare professionals are not only focused on the science behind their field, but also on how they can provide and guarantee the best possible careoptimal hospital performanceand effective management of occupancy and costs. To achieve this, most healthcare institutions have switched from paper to digital administration. Patient forms and medical records are now loaded into a digital database. This reduces the amount of "lost" patient information and makes it easier for healthcare providers to access a patient's records as they are all kept in one central location. While this digital revolution makes it easier for healthcare providers and creates higher quality of care, it can also provide quantitative analysis of a hospital or clinic's operational performance. Patient data can be extracted and turned into health KPIs that can be monitored on a dashboard or provided to managers in the form of reporting.

Now that you have an idea of ​​the potential behind these digital databases, let's take a look at the curated healthcare KPI list we created for your 2023 reporting.

Operational healthcare KPIs

Operational health KPIs focus on the performance of the healthcare institution. By improving these metrics, your hospital or clinic can increase operational efficiency, which in turn optimizes operating costs and increases patient satisfaction.

1. Average hospital stay:This healthcare KPI tracks the average length of stay of patients in the hospital. While this statistic is very useful, it is also very general. To get a higher resolution picture of what's happening in the hospital, patients need to be grouped according to their treatment type. For example, recovering from heart surgery always requires a longer stay than treating a sprained wrist or ankle. An average hospital stay by type of treatment allows hospital staff to identify abnormalities that may be the result of unseen complications.
   Average hospital stay= Total length of stay / Total number of stays
2. Bed- of kameromzet:This is a healthcare KPI that tracks how quickly patients move in and out of the facility. This metric should be monitored in conjunction with readmission rates to ensure that patients are not prematurely discharged and subsequently readmitted.
   Bed- of kameromzet= Number of discharges (including deaths) / Number of beds
3. Use of medical equipment:How many MRI machines does your hospital need? This modern health metric measures the use of advanced equipment in your facility. This is an important measure to keep costs under control, as specialized equipment comes with a high price tag. On the other hand, overutilized equipment can lead to higher maintenance costs and unexpected downtime, which can lead to processing delays.
4. Average waiting time for patients:Healthcare institutions are often very busy with long waiting times. As the name suggests, this metric tracks the average time a patient has to wait between checking in and seeing a healthcare provider. This is an important goal when it comes to staffing, scheduling, and understanding patient satisfaction.
   Patient waiting time= Total waiting time/number of patients

As we discussed earlier in this healthcare KPI list, the primary goal of a healthcare organization is to provide the highest possible quality of care to patients. However, this is only possible if the hospital or clinic is able to keep its finances in order.

Healthcare financial goals

Healthcare financial KPIs measure the top and bottom lines of your healthcare center. These health care economic measures include costs associated with treatments, claims, and human capital. They play a key role in identifying and reducing inefficiencies. It is therefore highly recommended that you include it in yourshealth reporting solution. Mistakes made here will trickle down to all other areas of your business.

5. Drug costs for patients per stay: This is a modern health metric that is often overlooked by hospital managers. Many medications come with high price tags. If your staff is not aware of this, they may be administering something that the patient cannot afford or that insurance will not cover. This, in turn, can result in a higher-than-expected charge for the hospital if it is unable to collect payment.pharmaceutical statistics.
   Drug costs for patients per stay= Total drug costs / number of stays
6. Average processing costs: This performance indicator indicates the average amount that a hospital charges for a treatment. This indicator best measures the effectiveness and efficiency of the treatments offered by your institution. This metric can be broken down by treatment type or even by treatment category. Average treatment costs are an excellent benchmark for reducing hospital costs.
   Average processing costs= Total treatment costs / number of treatments
7. Processing time for insurance claims: Everyone wants to be paid on time. This healthcare performance metric monitors the time spent processing insurance claims. Different insurance companies may take different amounts of time to make payment to your facility; Tracking this for cash flow and accounts receivable (AR) management is critical.
8. Claim rejection rate: Most healthcare costs are typically paid by insurance companies. However, there are cases in which the insurer sees reason not to pay out. Normally, institutions should aim for a rejection rate of less than five percent. A low rejection rate means the organization has more time to focus on patient care and spends less time on paperwork.
   Claim rejection rate (%)= (Number of rejected claims / Total number of claims) * 100
9. Average price per disposal: Does your healthcare center track the average costs per patient discharged? This healthcare financial metric can help hospitals understand which healthcare areas are overspending. It also shows which areas generate the most revenue. By tracking this statistic, hospitals can gain insight into long-term expenditure per care area and adjust care offerings accordingly.
   Average price per disposal= Total costs of discharges / number of discharges
10. Operational liquidity: As we mentioned earlier, the medical system needs money to function. There are many facilities that receive government funding but ultimately have to pay for their services. This healthcare financial metric measures the amount of money generated by normal activities in the hospital or clinic.
    Operational liquidity= EBIT + Depreciation – Taxes – Change in working capital
11. AR revenue: Most medical benefits are paid for directly by the patient, an insurance company, or through a government contract. This performance measure is used by management to determine how effectively the healthcare institution collects its receivables (money). High AR turnover indicates that payments are being collected on time, while low turnover indicates collection problems.
    AR revenue= Net credit turnover / average AR
12. Net profit margin: Ultimately you have to be 'in the black'. Net profit, or “bottom line” as people like to call it, is compared to the amount of sales your business generates, giving you your net profit.
    Net profit margin= Net income / Net turnover

Now that we've covered the operational and financial health metrics you need to keep an eye on, let's talk about how you can manage all of this data elegantly.

How a health dashboard can streamline your reporting

Healthcare institutions are busy places. Employees often walk away and have difficulty with all the work they have. Why not make it easier for your doctors, nurses and administrative staff? Most medical facilities will use a specialized ERP system to manage all the data collected during daily operations, but this does not provide insight for your staff. At insight software, we've created industry-leading healthcarereporting softwarethat can communicate with your existing ERP, making tracking and reporting KPIs a breeze. Here are some benefits of using our health reporting software:

• Automated data collection. Manual data collection is inefficient, cumbersome and error-prone. Insights software's health reporting solutions are able to collect data from your existing ERP and automatically process it for your dashboard.
• Centralized data. Centralized patient data is something healthcare professionals desire. Unfortunately, they are not something that many healthcare systems have. However, you can have centralized performance data about your installation. Our healthcare systemKPI-dashboardbrings your data to one central location, so you have access to what you need, when you need it.
• Pre-built KPI templates with ERP interface. Everyone in healthcare is busy – we understand that. That's why we have pre-built KPI templates that automatically pull data from your ERP.
• Reports at your fingertips. All the hard work has already been done for you. The data is automatically collected, placed in a central location and presented in a pre-built dashboard. All you have to do is click "print".

If you want to know more about the benefits of using healthcareBI-softwareFeel free to request a free demo and we will show you what our software is capable of. In the meantime, let's get back to the KPIs.

Healthcare institutions KPIs for monitoring internal processes

Internal KPIs in healthcare are built around personnel and internal processes. People management is an important part of the success of your organization. The KPIs in this area revolve around training and safety. This internal healthcare KPI list should be used in conjunction with the operational and financial KPIs mentioned above to gain a holistic understanding of how your healthcare center is performing.

13. Failed: This rate measures the number of errors made by staff in a medical facility when treating a patient. This is the most important metric for understanding the effectiveness of your workforce. These errors are typically divided into categories including: type of medication, dose amount, and type of treatment recommended.
    Failure Rate (%)= (Number of treatment errors / Total number of treatments) * 100
14. Education by department: There are many times in life where you can make a mistake or not really know what you're doing, and that's not really a problem. Healthcare facilities are not the kind of place you should worry about. To ensure proper care is provided, healthcare facilities keep track of how much training staff in each department have received.
15. Cancellation rate: This is a KPI for both outpatient clinics and hospitals. If a patient misses a scheduled appointment, the result is a wasted resource and negatively impacts the patient's relationship with the doctor or specialist. Measure this metric over time so you can address issues and improve attendance through reminders or additional calls to patients.
    Cancellation rate (%)= (Number of missed appointments / Total number of appointments) * 100
16. Seizure rates: This tracks the percentage of patients who are readmitted to hospital for the same condition or complication for which they were originally admitted. Higher hospitalization rates may indicate that physicians and other health care providers are not providing appropriate care to patients, while lower hospitalization rates indicate strong quality of care. This metric should be used in conjunction with the error rate and training by department to help identify what is driving readmission rates.
    Takeover rate (%)= (Number of acquisitions / Number of layoffs) * 100
17. Patient safety: Does your facility have protocols in place to keep patients safe? This health metric measures a hospital's ability to provide quality care to its patients and protect them from contracting a new infection or complications after surgery. It is extremely important to monitor this metric closely so that you can identify where problems are occurring, which stage of the process can be improved, and the likelihood of breakouts can be reduced.

Internal processes are of great importance in healthcare, because they can literally mean the difference between life and death for a patient. That said, public health care is considered by many to be much more important because it affects the entire population.

Public health objectives

Assessing population health through the use of performance measures can arguably be more critical to the health care system as a whole than evaluating the performance of health facilities. A highly educated public that receives preventive care is less likely to burden the emergency health care system.

18. Vaccination rate for children: This health metric measures the number of children who have received vaccinations. This is especially important because it can be considered a measure of the immunity of the general population. Herd immunity is important for healthcare facilities because it reduces the burden on your healthcare centers and frees up resources to treat other diseases.
    Vaccination rate for children (%)= (Number of children immunized / Total number of children) * 100
19. Number of training programs: A population is only as smart as the education it receives. This public health measure tracks the number of education programs in each region. Because this is a fairly broad metric, it is often broken down into program types and the target audience for each program.

As we mentioned above, preventive care reduces the burden on the reactive healthcare system. However, this does not mean that we should neglect the reactive part of the healthcare system.

Urgent KPI's

Emergency department health KPIs are metrics that focus on patient survival. These can be used to understand when people decide to visit the ER, and to analyze how well your ER is performing.

20. Time between onset of symptoms and admission: Do people know when to see a doctor? This health metric measures the time between when a patient begins to experience symptoms and when they are admitted to the hospital. It is always better to get the patients to the hospital as quickly as possible. It can help identify and treat conditions before they reach a critical stage. Public health officials should use this metric along with the metric for the number of training programs.
21. Patient mortality: This is a healthcare performance measure that many people try not to think about. It measures the percentage of patients who die in a hospital's care before they can be discharged. This health metric is a strong indicator of a hospital's ability to stabilize a patient's condition. The industry average for this metric is around two percent, but healthcare institutions should always aim for a lower percentage.
    Patient mortality (%)= (Number of patient deaths / total number of patients) * 100
22. Waiting time in the emergency room: The ER is a chaotic place where the worst cases are handled. The Emergency Department Wait Time KPI measures the amount of time between a patient's arrival at the emergency department and the time he or she is seen by a healthcare provider. This figure is similar to the average wait time for patients, but is more specific because the focus is only on the emergency room. Evaluate this metric to know when the peak times of the day are and the busiest days of the week. This enables more efficient workforce planning and can in turn save lives.
    Waiting time in the emergency room= Total waiting time/number of patients

Care quality metrics in healthcare

Quality metrics are useful for two different reasons. When a patient receives high-quality care, the likelihood of readmission is lower and patient satisfaction is higher. These are our top quality healthcare statistics:

23. Staff-to-patient ratio: The quality of care you receive in a healthcare facility largely depends on the amount of attention a patient receives. The easiest way to keep track of this is to compare the number of staff members with the number of patients. This health metric is so crucial that the state of California has a legally mandated staff-to-patient ratio to ensure minimum quality of care.
    Staff-to-patient ratio= Number of employees : Number of patients
24. Number of patient follow-ups: Measures the number of patients who receive follow-up after their stay in the institution. This could be a doctor, nurse or other staff member asking about the patient's improvements. This measure is used in combination with the acquisition rate; a higher follow-up rate will often lead to a lower readmission rate.
    Number of patient follow-ups (%)= (Number of follow-ups / Total number of patients) *100
25. Overall patient satisfaction: This is a health metric that calculates patient satisfaction. This can be a good marketing tool for your organization if satisfaction is high, but low satisfaction could indicate a problem with the facility and its services.

You've now learned the top 25 healthcare KPIs to use in your 2023 reporting and how healthcare dashboard software can streamline your financial reporting. This may seem overwhelming at first, but we are here to guide you on the journey to creating a health dashboard. If you have any questions about health dashboard software or health reporting solutions, please contact us. One of our reporting specialists will be happy to help you.