Characteristics of high performing healthcare services
What is the evidence that certain healthcare service characteristics are associated with high levels of performance? Can those responsible for healthcare services – funders, boards, managers – rely on the evidence in the literature to guide their strategies to improve hospital performance?
These are the questions this literature review sought to answer, using robust review methods recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council. More than 8,000 articles were screened, together with 11 systematic reviews and 49 observational studies.
Download the full report
A review of the literature - high performing healthcare service characteristics [PDF 2.19 MB] captures the evidence and recommendations arising from the review.
This report comprises the following sections:
- An executive summary [PDF 575 KB] a brief overview of the methods, summary of key findings, and suggested next steps following on from the evidence found in the literature review.
- A section on review methods [PDF 347 KB] provides a detailed outline of the search methods and processs for performing critical appraisal and evidence and recommendation grading.
Five report chapters summarise the findings and recommendations relating to reported health service performance areas:
- Multidimensional performance [PDF 486 KB]
- Patient outcomes [PDF, 739 KB]
- Process of care performance [PDF 534 KB]
- Human resources [PDF 778 KB]
- Financial performance [PDF 564 KB]
Project team
This literature review was undertaken as a collaborative project between:
- The Department of Health (Quality, Safety and Patient Experience)
- Victorian Managed Insurance Agency (VMIA)
- The Centre for Research Excellence in Patient Safety
- Monash University
- The Monash Asia-Pacific Centre for Science and Wealth Creation
- Melbourne Business School.