A few Key Performance Indicators for community paramedicine might include reduced repeat 911 calls, fewer hospital readmissions for chronic diseases, and a decline in negative interactions with police officers. The kind of KPIs that matter most for your program will depend on the specialty of your MIH/CP program and the demands of the community.
MIH/CP KPIs That Will Lead to Long-Term Success
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a way to ensure that your community paramedicine program stays on track. As you’ll see throughout this article, a primary goal of KPIs is to focus on objective data, rather than subjective opinion.
Of course, subjective data has its place, but all too often, a program can be thrown off the rails (or never really get going) because members of the program don’t feel like it’s working. On the other hand, it’s also somewhat of a tragedy when people feel like something is working when it isn’t.
Here’s how we’ll break down KPIs for Mobile Integrated Healthcare:
- Understanding MIH/CP Outcomes and Actions: How KPIs Differ
- Key performance indicators for MIH Chronic Disease management
- KPIs for Mental Health Co-Responder Program
- KPIs for Substance Abuse Recovery Initiatives
- KPIs and Financial Goals for MIH-CP Programs
- Collaboration KPIs for Community Networks (Reduced Wait Times and Redundancy)
Below, we hash out all the details.
Understanding MIH/CP Outcomes and Actions: How KPIs Differ
Before we even discuss some of the specific performance indicators, let’s talk about the two main types of data you will find yourself collecting (and why it’s essential not to neglect one or the other).
First, you have KPIs related to actions. This means that you’re measuring what you and your team can conceivably control. A few examples of action-related KPIs include the number of patients who received your service, the number of people informed about the program, and the number of mental health resources provided.
As you can see, there are actions that your service can take. The reason that these things are essential to measure is that they are what help you link causation to your outcomes. Speaking of outcomes, let’s talk about them.
Second, there are KPIs related to outcomes. The goal is to measure the result of the actions you took. For example, if your MIH-CP program visited 50 patients (action), then you would measure how many of them showed an improvement in their condition (outcome). To be more specific, if you visited 50 people in the days after they experienced an overdose (action), how many of them went on to achieve long-term recovery (outcome)?
You don’t want to become trapped by measuring one or the other. You want both. If all you measure is actions, people will wonder if your program is truly making a difference. If all you measure is outcomes, people will wonder if it’s really your program that’s causing them. Make sense?
With this in mind, let’s look at some specific KPIs for mobile integrated healthcare community paramedicine.
Key Performance Indicators for MIH Chronic Disease Management
Chronic diseases are a tricky thing for health systems to manage. While hospitals are often good at providing treatment, they struggle to effect real change in a person’s home life. Community paramedics frequently visit individuals after a prolonged hospital stay to provide support as they transition back to everyday life.
One key performance indicator for chronic disease management is the high number of people returning to the hospital. The two main KPIs would be: A) How many people did your MIH team visit after hospital discharge (action, and B) how many of those patients saw a decreased likelihood of hospital readmission following MIH Visits.
If you can demonstrate these two KPIs related to chronic disease management, then you can show that your program is heading in the right direction.
KPIs for Mental Health Co-Responder Programs
Key indicators for co-responder programs can tie to a host of data. Often, the main goal of a Co-responder program is to reduce the number of negative police interactions with those who are having a psychological or behavioral crisis. However, these programs also aim for long-term freedom for the people they serve.
A few KPIs for co-responders would be:
- How many hours are these programs freeing up for police officers? If a co-responder program can reduce the number of responses PD needs to make to a scene, then it is already making a significant difference.
- Has there been a drop in the number of reported negative police officer interactions? This indicator could be gathered from a two-way survey, one where you listen to what the police officers have to say (do they feel that the program is working), vs. what the participants in the program say
- Are the people having the mental health crisis seeing any long-term change? Do they call the ambulance less? Are they reporting greater levels of happiness in their life? These would be KPIs that demonstrate the co-responder program is having a positive short- and long-term impact.
Let’s talk KPIs for substance abuse programs.
KPIs for Substance Abuse Recovery Initiatives within Mobile Integrated Healthcare
Substance abuse has riddled the United States, with many communities feeling powerless to do anything about it. Mobile Integrated Healthcare has provided some hope, with programs like Post-Overdose Response Teams showing promise.
However, the question is: what are the KPIs that your substance abuse recovery program is working toward? Often, looking only at long-term recovery gives us a narrow picture. Of course, we want to see long-term freedom for patients, but smaller pieces of data can also be helpful.
For instance, for someone who has overdosed, a KPI could be how many times they sought emergency care after being visited by a community paramedicine team. If their number of ER visits and ambulance rides decreased, this may indicate a slight improvement in their condition.
Another KPI could be the number of people who voluntarily sought recovery after being visited by an MIH team. Seeking long-term recovery is undoubtedly the goal, but it’s also essential to measure the data points along the way. Breaking down your organization’s big goals into smaller, more manageable objectives can result in a clearer overall picture.
KPIs and Financial Goals for MIH-CP Programs
Financial KPIs for Mobile Integrated Health-Community Paramedicine will be very specific to your organization’s budget, how your program is being funded, and the number of partners who agree to support you.
Instead of saying to yourself, “We want to make this much money by this amount of time,” start by looking at the data. Try to break down the cost of a resource and then match it to a specific outcome.
To provide a simple example, let’s say that you’re starting a program to help reduce the number of hospital discharges. After about six months, you have determined that to prevent (1) person from being readmitted to a hospital in 30 days, it costs you $10,000 (this is an arbitrary number for the sake of the example).
Now, you can do two things with that number. First, ask yourself: How can we achieve the same result while spending only $9,000? Now you have a KPI that is based on efficiency (and something you have more control over).
Second, you can use that data when trying to build partnerships. If you can say to the hospital, “We can reduce X number of patients’ hospital readmissions for Y number of dollars,” then you’re going to have a much better time convincing people to come on board.
Collaboration KPIs for Community Networks (Reduced Wait Times and Redundancy)
Another KPI is the number of partnerships your community paramedicine team forms. This could be a partnership with a hospital, a clinic, a mental health institution, or any other organization that has a vested interest in the community’s health.
It can be challenging to predict who will and will not be able to partner with you. For this reason, “collaborations” might be a KPI where it’s worth focusing more on actions than outcomes. For example, a KPI could be – we want our team to reach out to 50 new area organizations and discuss partnerships.
Conclusion: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and MIH-CP
When you think about KPIs, keep two pieces of information in mind: what you can control, and what you can’t. In other words, you want to measure your actions (how many patients you visited) and the outcomes (how many of those patients are now healthier).
By measuring KPIs in this way, you have the freedom to fine-tune your program’s inner workings, resulting in greater efficiency, reduced waste, and healthier communities.
A critical component of KPIs is the ability to measure them–that’s where Julota comes in. Julota’s software tools allow you to track your KPIs, set goals, and improve over time.
