Measuring Outcomes

The true measures of quality for a hospital are the outcomes that matter to patients. Measuring the outcomes for healthcare services delivery is one of the most important functions for a quality conscious and value focussed organisation.  These outcome measures help to monitor quality of patient care and clinical processes within the organization.

Outcomes data gives you information on how well a hospital provided care for most of its patients. When outcomes are measured and published, it fosters improvement and helps healthcare organizations adopt best practices. Publishing outcomes indicates a true commitment to an environment of constant improvement and transparency.

You can use the following information to help you compare hospitals for their quality focus.

Quick Check for Quality

Look for a hospital that:
 

• Is accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI), the gold standard for healthcare quality across the globe or a national accreditation body such as the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH)
• Has experience with your condition
• Has had success with your condition
• Has adopted the continuous quality improvement model for improving its quality of care
• Tracks patient outcomes (how well the patients do)
• Has formulated quality/outcome indicators to measure and improve systems and processes
• Has a robust infection control programme and ensures strict compliance

Apollo Hospitals is committed to the highest standards of quality and clinical excellence for its patients. Our priority is to ensure that all patients are cared for in a way that is safest and most efficient. In order to efficiently measure and compare key clinical outcome processes across all the hospitals in the Group, Apollo Hospitals devised and is successfully using the ACE scoring system. We are the first corporate hospital group in India to start benchmarking and monitoring clinical performance outcomes since 2005 through the ACE dashboard. We were also the first to start publishing data in 2009 in our annual excellence report.

Earlier known as ACE@25, this scorecard has been enhanced and upgraded regularly with ACE 3.0 as its most current version.

ACE 3.0 is a comprehensive clinical balanced scorecard that encompasses 30 clinical parameters, including complication rates, mortality rates, one-year survival rates, readmission rates, unplanned returns, postoperative acute kidney injury requiring dialysis, average urea reduction ratio (URR) in haemodialysis patients, zero-delay metrics, and zero-harm indicators such as hospital-acquired infection rates. These parameters collectively cover all major clinical specialties. In addition, five new parameters have been introduced under the ACE Ideal Process framework.

Parameters have been benchmarked against internationally published standards from leading global institutions, including the Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, the National Healthcare Safety Network, the American Heart Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (USA). The weighted scores for outcomes are color-coded as green and red. The maximum cumulative score is capped at 100.

Few indicators are given below as examples: