Balanced Scorecard: Development of a Strategic Map to Improve the Performance of Medical Services

Introduction

The health care system is one of the most critical sectors of society and the economy, especially in countries with a developed economy, growing significantly in recent years. However, despite all the investments made by governments, this system is complex and has difficulties measuring performance, is characterized by long waiting times, low productivity, stressed medical staff, or patients dissatisfied with the medical services provided.

Performance measurement provides management of health care institutions with evidence of existing practices, beliefs, and assumptions, allowing management to create a strategic map for improving future health care services (Cokins & Căpușneanu, 2020). The development of the strategic map is closely linked to the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and the perspectives of approaching the performance of an organization: the financial perspective, the internal perspective, the client perspective and the learning and growth perspective. Being composed of a complex set of entities, processes and activities, the health care system is subject to dramatic changes due to its functioning, the increase of the competitive level, the alternatives of services offered to the clients, the increase of the quality of the medical services offered.

To cope with these changes, the management of a healthcare institution must have reliable and timely information to make appropriate decisions with an impact on future business and increase performance, especially given that healthcare services are based on the most accurate information possible. of the customer. The improvement of the performance measurement system in the field of medical services must be rethought and adapted to the pressures of reducing costs, the quality of the level of care of patients/clients, ETC. Therefore, IT is very important to select specific indicators with an impact on highlighting those issues pursued by the objectives set by the management of health care institutions (Holban et al., 2021). In this regard, the purpose of this chapter is to highlight the following aspects: (1) the presentation of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) concept and its development; (2) the use of BSC in medical services; (3) presentation of the critical factors that influence the medical services industry; (4) presentation of the advantages and limitations of BSC implementation; (5) conducting a case study on developing a strategic map for improving performance with the help of the BSC at a healthcare institution.