An Analytic Hierarchy Framework for Evaluating Balanced Scorecards of Healthcare Organizations

Abstract Healthcare organizations have been operating in a turbulent environment for years. Pressures from the government and competition as well as escalating costs have driven administrators to search for effective management tools. Balanced scorecard (BSC), a strategic management system, has been implemented in business organizations with success and is gaining acceptance in the not-for-profit and healthcare sectors. Despite potential benefits, there are challenges for implementers of BSC such as judgment biases, information overload, and the synthesis of information. This paper proposes to apply the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to hospital scorecards in performance assessment. Although AHP could be a time-consuming exercise, it allows participative input in determining a comprehensive measure for comparing performance of healthcare organizations. Resume Depuis des annees, les organisations de soins de sante evoluent dans un environnement difficile. Les pressions gouvernementales, la concurrence et l'envolee des couts poussent les administrateurs a rechercher des outils de gestion plus efficaces. C'est dans ce cadre que le Tableau de bord equilibre (BSC) a ete mis en aeuvre. Malgre ses avantages potentiels, le BSC bute sur certains problemes dont la partialite des jugements, l'exces, et la synthese des informations. Cette etude applique la methode de la hierarchie multicritere aux tableaux de bords des hopitaux dans la gestion de la performance. Meme si l'application de cette methode peut s'averer chronophage, elle permet de determiner une mesure d'ensemble pour la comparaison de la performance des organisations de soins de sante.