Title: A contribution to performance measurement in the healthcare industry: the industrial point of view

Authors: Jos Schaefers, Jerome Colin, Riad Aggoune, Myriam Kucina

Addresses: Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor, L-4002 Esch-sur-Alzette, G.D. Luxembourg. ' Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor, L-4002 Esch-sur-Alzette, G.D. Luxembourg. ' Universite du Luxembourg, Campus Kirchberg, L-1359 Luxembourg, G.D. Luxembourg. ' Centre National de Reeducation fonctionnelle et de readaptation, L-2224 Luxembourg, G.D. Luxembourg

Abstract: The health domain has entered the crucial phase of an important paradigm shift. The word |customer| has started replacing the word |patient|. It has been commonly admitted that the hospital|s industry must be financed by social systems and only continue to exist as long as sufficient financial resources are available. This statement should be definitely replaced by: ||What must be changed such that within available budgets more health can be produced?|| This new philosophy needs a system that is able to measure impacts of any local modification on the global system. The present paper aims at finding a Theory of Constraints (TOC)-based answer to the hospital measurement system. TOC has been largely applied in the industrial world. Some successful implementations are reported from the financial industry, but so far the socio-economic world using TOC is mainly limited to profit organisations. We propose an extension of the TOC concept towards a non-profit world.

Keywords: global health management; performance measurement; health goal units; health throughput; health inventory; theory of constraints; TOC; healthcare; hospital measurement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPM.2007.011864

International Journal of Business Performance Management, 2007 Vol.9 No.2, pp.226 - 239

Published online: 28 Dec 2006 *

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