Metrics that Matter

Introduction

The Chief Quality Officer Forum identified “Metrics that Matter” to drive desired outcomes that mobilize enterprise-wide effectiveness. Metrics matched with human behavior can lead to unintentional outcomes, which can undermine the ability of your leadership team to advance the organization, increase risk of patient harm, and lead to financial loss. Take the time to understand what your metrics are doing for (or to) your organization!

 A Glimpse of our Work

The following work is provided for you to support the success of your organization. Although this is just a snapshot of the outcomes used to inform the actions of the Chief Quality Officer Forum, it is an important part of the foundation.

1. Assessment of Cross-Functional Team Metrics

   Tension across an organization often resides with the objectives and goals established for each cross-functional group. However, it often is not recognized that there is an unidentified presence of conflicting goals. Individuals are frustrated with each other, and they cannot understand why the other group is going in the opposite direction. Additionally, cross-functional groups often have identical and/or synergistic goals, but do not realize the opportunities because their terminology is different.

   The CQO Forum set out to determine the Top 3 Metrics of various cross-functional groups across the enterprise. What they found was exciting and opened many opportunities to build synergies. The top 2 metrics of every group that participated were: Right First Time and On-Time (in either order, but always the top 2 metrics).

2. Xavier University Metrics Assessment

   The Chief Quality Officer Forum relied upon research already conducted by Xavier University through 2 separate initiatives:

   1. The FDA/Xavier Case for Quality Measures Initiative. FDA and Xavier University launched the Quality Measures Initiative with a Work Group comprised of industry professionals and FDA officials. The goal of this initiative was to identify ways for industry to proactively and predictively measure the risk to product quality across the total product lifecycle. Although this work focused on the medical device industry, the outcome is truly product agnostic.

   2. The Xavier/PwC Metrics Initiative. In support of FDA’s intent to allocate its resources based on risk, Xavier University and PwC launched a Metrics Initiative to identify product quality risk metrics linked to patient safety that could be viewed during an inspection. Xavier University and PwC led a team of 31 industry professionals that developed a framework of 11 metrics across the Total Product Life Cycle (TPLC).

3. The V-Model Approach

   If you have ever heard your employees refer to an initiative as “The Flavor of the Month”, then you know they have seen initiatives fade away without being completed, or without having the desired impact. But why? Through the use of a V-Model, the CQO Forum ensured that initiatives and metrics would be tied to desired outcomes in a measurable way.

   Check out the scenario to learn how to put the V-Model into motion for you!

Questions? Please contact Marla Phillips at Marla.Phillips@Pathway4PH.org, or use the Contact Us form. Thank you for your interest!