K.I.S.S Method

Ever since we published our whitepaper called Value-1000, I have been asked several times "why so simple?" "What about a transformation curve approach?", "What about weighting the measures"? Well folks, I subscribe to the K.I.S.S method. And I am not talking about smooching.

To weigh or not to weigh?
While weighting has it's benefits in some other industries, I just can't wrap my head around "weighing" a measure in healthcare. If we divide measures into several groups, then maybe. But when it comes to patient care measures, I don't think it is the right approach. Let me explain. There has been a paper published that talked about adding weights to severity of outcome. Arguably, Patient mortality can be considered the worst outcome ever and we can give it a weight of 100 (max available, let's say, for example's sake). So, we add a weight depending on the severity of the outcome. My problem is this: the weightage of any measure is decided by a person or a panel that decides that this should be the weightage given to a particular measure. An athlete who became a quadriplegic, but lived might argue that the severity of her care outcome is as severe as Patient mortality and hence should be given the same weightage. To me, it is subjective. The subjectivity in care should be left to the experts, if you ask me and that expert is not I. It is the "provider", in my humble opinion.

Curving
Sure, we can "curve". But to get to the curve, we still need to collect data points based on one or more algorithms for each measure.

So, in Value 1000, we are only talking about "one" approach of measuring quality in healthcare. The paper is not intended to be the "be all, end all" approach either. It is intended to generate discussion and ideas. So feel free to send me comments about it. And if you have a great idea on measuring quality, publish it!