Progressive healthcare organizations are realizing that quality and performance improvement strategy execution is too important to be the chief operating officer’s (COO) part-time job. New job titles like chief performance improvement officer (CPO), or departments such as the office of strategy management, are evolving to ensure that the executive team’s formulated strategy is executed and that the various performance management methodologies are phased in and integrated.
Measurements drive behavior, and the CPO’s role is tasked to ensure alignment of many dimensions, including capacity, the work of employees, patient throughput and the fiscal budget to achieve the organization’s strategy. A strategy is never static—it is continually responding to an ever-changing status and circumstances. It is adjusted as external factors change and new things are learned. The CPO is needed to ensure that executives are continuously modifying the strategy and that its adjustments are quickly linked to those who execute the strategy.
