Duke Children's Hospital Balanced Scorecard Essay

Duke Children's Hospital Balanced Scorecard - Essay Example A Balanced scorecard therefore aids in achieving the firm’s strategic priorities and goals. In developing a balance scorecard, Duke Children’s Hospital had an established strategy: â€Å"perk up communications to perk up quality of health care while reducing expenses.† The organization sought to use the balanced scorecard in evaluating its business processes and stakeholder relationship due to its meditated impacts on business organizations. Duke Children’s Hospital employed the strategy of evaluating and examining its past records such as patient satisfaction survey data, in establishing the balanced scorecard. As a result of its anticipated positive results, the staff generally took it positively and was patient to reap the fruits. Analysis In the Duke Children’s Hospital, the developed BSC methodology started with the development of the strategic plan and a mission. The senior management were involved in setting the strategic goals and provided c redible support for the project. The key metrics for measuring performance were then developed and established. The process was concluded by developing initiatives that were pointed towards enhancing performance and to support the realization of the set strategic goals. The Balance Scorecard was set to act as an important platform to spearhead the incorporation of the principal methodologies, initiatives, and the established procedures across critical perspectives. Even though financial performance is a critical issue in any organization, the major focus of Duke Children’s Hospital over the balance scorecard was on clinical quality and patient safety. This interest is well executed in the organization’s mission and vision. In order to thrive as planned, Duke Children’s Hospital was compelled to make a number of changes with regard to the balance scorecard. First, the initial principal concern for the organization just like any other (financial interest) was inte rchanged as key concern and instead they focused more on the patient safety and clinical quality. This was altered from the normal arrangement perspective whereby the â€Å"Financial† interest was initially first, and was instead moved to position three while â€Å"Quality and Patient Safety† took the top position. Further, its significance and value was well indicated and stressed. Another change that was observed in the business process is that of linking goals with performance metrics. After the strategic plan was defined, the organization took the responsibility to determine specific goals which were then linked to each strategic perspective. Duke Children’s Hospital also sought to limit the goal to a smaller number for the purpose of maintaining focus on initiatives meant to drive the strategic plan. Specific metrics which were meant to be measured and collected after every four months were then defined and linked to the goals. In doing this, a number of me asures were employed to determine a manageable process. For instance, the metrics were derived from a variety of kept records of the organization. This involved retrieving the initial patient safety database derived from internal safety reporting systems, initial financial and hospital operational database, and the past patient satisfaction survey data, among others. Conclusion The establishment of the balance score