Analyzing Data for Performance Measures

What does it mean?

Once baseline information for each performance measure is gathered and reported in the HRSA Electronic Handbook (EHB), what are the next steps?

Implementation Manual Targets

The implementation manual contains targets for each measure for each year through 2011. These may be useful to states in benchmarking progress, but do not represent an absolute standard that states must achieve each year in order to retain funding.

If your program is struggling to meet a particular performance measure, remember that the ultimate compliance target for most measures is 2011, so keep trying! Even for measures #68 a & b which have earlier target dates, keep trying to make progress even if you don’t meet the initial compliance goal.

Evaluation of Deficiencies

The information reported in the EHB indicates compliance with each measure on a broad level, but further evaluation of the data gathered is necessary to know specifically where deficiencies may exist in each state’s program.

For example, it may be that only 10% of the EMS services in a state have all recommended pediatric equipment on all their ambulances, but only through further analysis of the information gathered from providers can a state know which pieces of equipment are most commonly not found and how close services may be to becoming compliant with the equipment standard.

States are encouraged to evaluate all of the information gathered for each performance measure to know how "out of compliance" they might be with a particular measure, and to develop priorities for addressing each measure with the help of their EMSC Advisory Committee.

After Year One

Once year one baseline information has been finalized for each performance measure, the EMSC program will share the results of aggregated data along with ideas or best practices for making improvements for each measure. This information will allow individual states to know generally how they compare to the rest of the nation in each measure area and may help generate support for making needed progress.

Finally...

Do not hesitate to contact members of NEDARC or the NRC for help in evaluating your performance measures data and developing strategies for making improvements!

 

 

rev. 15-Jul-2006