Assessing Hospital Performance Using Pabon Lasso Analysis

Reliable evaluation of hospital performance requires the use of assessment methods relying on multiple indicators. Pabon Lasso analysis is among these methods that combine the indicators such as bed occupancy rate, bed turnover rate, and average length of stay to yield a comprehensive assessment of current hospital performance. Given that the use of this analysis is new to Iranian hospitals, in this study, we conducted a Pabon Lasso analysis of the performance of hospitals affiliated to Qazvin University of Medical Sciences (QUMS) to indicate the usefulness and help promotion of this analysis method in Iranian hospitals. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2012 by using the hospital data obtained from ospitals affiliated with Qazvin University of Medical Sciences (QUMS), during 2008-2010. The means of bed occupation rate and bed turnover rate of hospitals for each year were computed and the Pabon Lasso graphs were plotted accordingly. Based on these data, the location of each hospital was specified on the diagram. While, in 2008, only one hospital has been resided on Zone 3, only a single hospital could manage to enter this zone during the following two years. In addition, while Zone 4 has not been occupied by any hospital in 2008, one hospital has fallen to this zone in the following two years. Other hospitals could maintain their location on the Pabon Lasso graphs across three years. The results indicated that six out of the seven hospitals studied do not follow an effective performance improvement program. This is due to either lack of planning towards higher performance, or ineffectiveness of the plans, which need revision. Hence, using Pabon Lasso analysis, the hospital administrators can gain insight into the present situation of their hospitals, the effectiveness of the current management and decision-making processes, and seek for the true direction towards higher performance in future.