Performance Measures for Health Information Systems

Support for health care information technology projects is becoming more and more dependent on hard evidence that such investments yield significant benefits. For health care agencies, this means that new information system projects must be justified in terms of documented improvements in effectiveness, efficiency, and healthcare outcomes. This justification is often best made with performance measures. The approach will allow public health information technology to justify the benefits of new healthcare innovations to funding agencies, government and the public. The proposed presentation defines IT project results to be achieved relevant to new healthcare information systems related to:

Output measures: Any product of a public health IT project activity. Output measures are usually indicators of the volume of work accomplished as opposed to the intended results of that work.

Outcome measures: The consequences of a public health IT program or project. Outcome measures focus on what the project makes happen rather than what it does, and are closely related to healthcare agency goals and mission.

Efficiency measures: Measures that indicate the affect of the project on a healthcare agency's efficiency in its use of resources (cost, time, personnel).

The presentation will offer a model for effective development of performance measures linked to a health care information system's contribution to healthcare outputs, outcomes and efficiency indicators. Participants will be able to apply model, adopted by OMB, to new health information technology projects. Sample performance measures and design process will be presented for professional use participants in documenting benefits of IT innovation in public health.