“In God we trust, all others bring data.” W. Edwards Deming
The pandemic has left the health and human service field with more than lots of virtual visits. The consumer relationship with the health care system is being remade in the post-pandemic era. Consumer expectations have changed—rapid access, great experiences, and low cost are their top priorities.

Metrics-based management, data-driven organizations, performance management systems—so many ways to describe the importance for specialty provider organizations to leverage the use of analytics to improve consumer experience and the quality of care, facilitate expanded relationships with payers, and reduce costs.

In my article, The Right Data to Manage Strategy & Performance: Ten Rules to Follow, I describe how it is important for specially provider organizations to differentiate strategic performance metrics from operational performance metrics when building their performance management operations. Strategic performance metrics are focused on reporting long-term performance and progress towards strategic objectives.

As my staff and customers know, I’m big on performance metrics. Metrics by themselves are innocuous. By definition, a metric is “a standard for measuring or evaluating something, especially one that uses figures or statistics.” But the concept of “metrics” represents a wholesale change in philosophy, management practice, and leadership in health and human services. Metrics are a different form of accountability. Use of metrics presumes that we can quantify the value of health and human services. Metrics force new responsibilities on supervisors, managers, and executives.

Sponsored By Qualifacts
Value-based care requires a renewed focus on quality and care coordination for today’s behavioral health and human service providers. Value-based care includes new and different compliance criteria to adopt and adhere to. It increases the need for greater documentation efficiency and consistency to collect quality data. It also requires new types of staff specialization, culture change and technology to purposefully use that data to drive improvement.