Metrics: Not just for doctors anymore.

While hospitals and networks frequently use metrics in their efforts to lower readmissions, comply with regulations, adopt new technologies, reduce overall costs, and get doctors the right information at the right time, not as many are arming their nurses with metrics.

“Giving nurses access to metrics can help reduce care delays, increase patient satisfaction, manage costs, increase productivity, and sustain organizational focus,” Asha Saxena, CEO of Future Technologies, wrote in an article on Government Health IT sister site Future Care.

Saxena pointed out that nurses should regularly have access to these metrics in particular: 

1. The care experience
2. Staff engagement
3. Healthcare-associated infections
4. Emergency admissions and bed days
5. Adverse events
6. The hospital standardized mortality ratio
7. Premature mortality rate 
8. Patient travel, activity, and location
9. Resource use

“For any of these metrics to make any difference, hospital administrators must make them useful for nurses,” Saxena wrote. “Metrics should be available on an easy-to-use platform and only include the most relevant information so nurses don’t have to waste their time sifting through raw data.”