Teaching hospitals (THs) simultaneously serve three different roles: offering medical treatment, teaching future doctors, and promoting research. The international literature recognises such organisations as ‘peaks of excellence’ and highlights their economic function in the health system. In addition, the literature describes the urgent need to manage the complex dynamics and inefficiency issues that threaten the survival of teaching hospitals worldwide. In this context, traditional performance measurement systems that focus only on accounting and financial measures appear to be inadequate. Given that THs are highly specific and complex, a multidimensional system of performance measurement, such as the balanced scorecard (BSC), may be more appropriate because of the multitude of stakeholders, each of whom seek a specific type of accountability. The aim of the paper is twofold: 1) to review the literature on the BSC and its applications in teaching hospitals and 2) to propose a scorecard framework that is suitable for assessing the performance of THs and serving as a guide for scholars and practitioners. In addition, this research will contribute to the ongoing debate on performance evaluation systems by suggesting a revised BSC framework and proposing specific performance indicators for THs.

Applying the Balanced Scorecard Approach in Teaching Hospitals: A literature review and conceptual framework

TROTTA A.;MAURO M
2012-01-01

Abstract

Teaching hospitals (THs) simultaneously serve three different roles: offering medical treatment, teaching future doctors, and promoting research. The international literature recognises such organisations as ‘peaks of excellence’ and highlights their economic function in the health system. In addition, the literature describes the urgent need to manage the complex dynamics and inefficiency issues that threaten the survival of teaching hospitals worldwide. In this context, traditional performance measurement systems that focus only on accounting and financial measures appear to be inadequate. Given that THs are highly specific and complex, a multidimensional system of performance measurement, such as the balanced scorecard (BSC), may be more appropriate because of the multitude of stakeholders, each of whom seek a specific type of accountability. The aim of the paper is twofold: 1) to review the literature on the BSC and its applications in teaching hospitals and 2) to propose a scorecard framework that is suitable for assessing the performance of THs and serving as a guide for scholars and practitioners. In addition, this research will contribute to the ongoing debate on performance evaluation systems by suggesting a revised BSC framework and proposing specific performance indicators for THs.
2012
teaching hospitals; balanced scorecard; performance measurement
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12317/7191
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact