Developing key performance indicators for prescription medication systems

by Eldon Spackman, Fiona Clement, G. Michael Allan, Chaim M. Bell, Lise M. Bjerre, Dave F. Blackburn, Régis Blais, Glen Hazlewood, Scott Klarenbach, Lindsay E. Nicolle, Nav Persaud, Silvia Alessi-Severini, Mike Tierney, Harindra C. Wijeysundera, Braden Manns

To develop key performance indicators that evaluate the effectiveness of a prescription medication system.

A modified RAND/UCLA appropriateness method was used to develop key performance indicators (KPIs) for a prescription medication system. A broad list of potential KPIs was compiled. A multidisciplinary group composed of 21 experts rated the potential KPIs. A face-to-face meeting was held following the first rating exercise to discuss each potential KPI individually. The expert panel undertook a final rating of KPIs. The final set of KPIs were those indicators where at least 80 percent of experts rated the indicator highly i.e. rating of ≥ 7 on a scale from 1 to 9.

292 KPIs were identified from the published literature. After removing duplicates and combining similar indicators 71 KPIs were included. The final ranking resulted in six indicators being ranked 7 or higher by 80% of the respondents and an additional seven indicators being ranked 7 or higher by ≥70 but ≤80% of respondents. The six selected indicators include four specific disease areas, measure structural and process aspects of health service delivery, and assessed three of the domains of healthcare quality: efficiency, effectiveness, and safety.

These indicators are recommended as a starting point to assess the current performance of prescription medication systems. Consideration should be given to developing indicators in additional disease areas as well as indicators that measure the domains of timeliness and patient–centeredness. Future work should focus on the feasibility of measuring these indicators.