Outcome measures refer to important clinical and financial outcomes pertinent to healthcare organizations. They are objectives related to quality and cost that health organizations aim at to promote improvement (Burton, 2017). They reflect the health status of patients in the organization. Metrics applied in outcome measures include readmission, patient experience, safety of care, and mortality rates. On the other hand, process measures refer to the particular interventions in a practice that contribute to a specific metric either positively or negatively (Burton, 2017). For instance, if an outcome measure is the length of hospitalization, the process metric can be the period between when the discharge was ordered by a physician and when a patient got discharged.
Process measures are more valuable than outcome measures since they help establish the root cause of a problem in a health organization. They represent the evidence-based interventions and best practices that demonstrate an organization’
s efforts to improve its quality of care (Jazieh, 2020). An example is an organization that wants to reduce patient falls, which will be the outcome measure. The process measures will include the evidence-based interventions that the health providers will take to prevent a fall incidence in fall-risk patients at the inpatient units (Jazieh, 2020). The first crucial step will be to identify patients at risk of falls through a fall risk assessment to establish whether a patient has a low, moderate, or high risk of falling. Prevention measures will then be instituted for patients identified as moderate to high risks, such as modifying the patient environment, using smart beds, and having wheelchairs near the patient bed. The outcome measure on reduced patient falls can only be achieved if the process measures are enhanced. Furthermore, process measures can be the approach to change clinical practices towards evidence-based practice and thus more important than outcome measures.
References
Burton, T. (2017). Why process measures are often more important than outcome measures in healthcare. Health Catalyst.
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