What are Efficiency Indicators?

VHI's Efficiency (and Productivity) indicators were designed to help large employers and purchasers (health insurance companies) find the most efficient and productive health care providers.

VHI publishes rankings on the Efficiency and Productivity of ambulatory (outpatient) surgical centers, hospitals and nursing facilities each year.

Performance measures include charges, costs, productivity, financial viability and community support.

Four Quartile Efficiency Rating

VHI rates hospitals and nursing facilities by separating them in four groups of high to low scores for each measure. The groups are called quartiles. Quartile rankings are a simple way of measuring differences among facilities. Each facility is assigned a quartile value from 1 to 4.

1	For facilities in the top 25% of the measure. Their score was in the 1st quartile, the most efficient/productive
2	are for facilities in the second quartile
3	are for facilities in the third quartile
4	marks facilities in the bottom 25%. Their score was in the fourth quartile. The least efficient/productive

Our web display shows the star rating for a facility and actual value. You can click on any indicator description to get a definition of the indicator and the high and low values for each indicator within each star rating.

Why is this important?

Facilities that are efficient may waste less resources and provide better quality of care by streamlining and reducing unnecessary costs. VHI indicators allow you to see how facilities rank as far as costs and also their profits (operating margins).

Information Sources:

Under Virginia law VHI collects audited financial statements and other information from ambulatory surgical centers, hospitals and nursing facilities. VHI reviews and verifies these data and provides these rankings each year based on a facility's fiscal year.

More Information:

For more in-depth comparisons, VHI has created Excel spreadsheets of the data you see in these web pages. These spreadsheets allow you to compare facility scores side by side. These spreadsheets and more details on the methods VHI uses are part of VHI's Industry Report. For more information click here.