Metrics Used to Evaluate and Track the Quality of Health Care Services

Metrics Used to Evaluate and Track the Quality of Health Care Services
Metrics used to evaluate and track the quality of health care services include structure, outcome, and process measures. Structural measures give clients a sense of health care practitioners’ competency, processes, and systems to offer high-quality care. An example of a structural metric includes establishing whether the hospital employs electronic health records. Outcome metrics reflect the health care intervention or service impact on a patient’s health status. For example, establishing the rate of hospital-associated infections, surgical complications, or surgical mortality rates. Process measures develop the provider’s efforts to improve or sustain health for individuals diagnosed with an illness or healthy persons. The metric archetypally reflects the accepted standards of care or clinical practice. An example of a process metric is the percentage of individuals with type 2 diabetes who managed to test and control their blood sugar levels (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2015). Process measures inform the clients concerning health care they might expe...