MBNQA Criteria and Performance Measurement:Review, Critique, and Research Agenda

The paper presents an overview of performance measurement in healthcare organizations. The objective is to measure the organizational performance in a healthcare organization. The literature review suggest that the performance measurement in healthcare organizations is complex and is influenced by both the internal and external customer. There is a need to find out comprehensive frameworks that are suitable for healthcare settings. The paper provides a brief review of the existing performance measurement frameworks. This paper also critically explores the changing role of quality in the MBNQA criteria from 1988 to 2008 at approximately five year intervals that are 1988,1992,1997,2003 and 2008. In recent years there is an increasing emphasis on corporate culture and globalization and therefore it is necessary for healthcare organizations to target in the area of organizational performance. On the basis of review, a suitable performance measurement system criterion in healthcare organizations is discussed. This issue is significant because of the concurrent view amongst various researchers in services management that there are both hard and soft issues reflecting, the lack of strategic thinking and goal clarity, necessitating a measurement system that focuses on application of a comprehensive measurement system in service organizations, especially in healthcare. The paper concludes by highlighting the dearth in services management research regarding focus on service quality and performance through an integrated perspective.