Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:51:11.174Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Are We Ready and How Do We Know? The Urgent Need for Performance Metrics in Hospital Emergency Management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2013

Abstract

An extraordinary number of health care quality and patient safety indicators have been developed for hospitals and other health care institutions; however, few meaningful indicators exist for comprehensive assessment of hospital emergency management. Although health care institutions have invested considerable resources in emergency management preparedness, the need for universally accepted, evidence-based performance metrics to measure these efforts remains largely unfulfilled. We suggest that this can be remediated through the application of traditional health care quality paradigms, coupled with novel analytic approaches to develop meaningful performance data in hospital emergency management. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2009;3:57–60)

Type
Concepts in Disaster Medicine
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Berman, MA, Lazar, EJ. Hospital emergency preparedness—lessons learned since Northridge. N Engl J Med. 2003;348:13071309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Kohn, LT, Corrigan, JM, Donaldson, MS. To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington, DC: Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine; 2000.Google Scholar
3.Lenape, LL, Berwick, DM. Five years after To Err Is Human—what have we learned?. JAMA. 2005;293:23842390.Google Scholar
4. HHS Fact Sheet: Accomplishment in Biodefense Preparedness. US Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.hhs.gov/news/factsheet/biodefense.html. Accessed April 24, 2007.Google Scholar
5.Lurie, N, Wasserman, J, Nelson, CD. Public health emergency preparedness: evolution or revolution?. Health Aff. 2006;25:935945.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.Birnbaum, ML. Accentuate the positive. Prehosp Disast Med. 2006;21:221222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7.Nelson, C, Lurie, N, Wasserman, J, et alConceptualizing and defining public health emergency preparedness. Am J Public Health. 2007;97 (Suppl 1) S9S11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8. Health Care at the Crossroads—Strategies for Creating and Sustaining Community-wide Emergency Preparedness Systems. http://www.jointcommission.org/NR/rdonlyres/9C8DE572-5D7A-4F28-AB84-3741EC82AF98/0/emergency_preparedness.pdf. Accessed September 28, 2008.Google Scholar
9.Donabedian, A. Evaluating the quality of medical care. Milbank Mem Fund Q. 1966;44:166203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10.Donabedian, A. A Guide to Medical Care Administration, Vol. II: Medical Care Appraisal—Quality and Utilization. New York: American Public Health Association; 1969.Google Scholar
11.Donabedian, A. The quality of care. How can it be assessed?. JAMA. 1988;260:17431748.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Pandemic and All-hazards Preparedness Act, Pub L No. 109-417, s101 et seq (2006).Google Scholar
13.Hodge, JG, Gostin, LO, Vernick, JS. The Pandemic and All-hazards Preparedness Act—improving public health emergency response. JAMA. 2007;297:17081711.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed