Bevan, Gwyn 
ORCID: 0000-0003-2123-3770 and Hamblin, Richard
(2009)
Hitting and missing targets by ambulance services for emergency calls: effects of different systems of performance measurement within the UK.
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society, 172 (1).
pp. 161-190.
ISSN 0964-1998
Abstract
Following devolution, differences developed between UK countries in systems of measuring performance against a common target that ambulance services ought to respond to 75% of calls for what may be immediately life threatening emergencies (category A calls) within 8 minutes. Only in England was this target integral to a ranking system of ‘star rating’, which inflicted reputational damage on services that failed to hit targets, and only in England has this target been met. In other countries, the target has been missed by such large margins that services would have been publicly reported as failing, if they had been covered by the English system of star ratings. The paper argues that this case-study adds to evidence from comparisons of different systems of hospital performance measurement that, to have an effect, these systems need to be designed to inflict reputational damage on those that have performed poorly; and it explores implications of this hypothesis. The paper also asks questions about the adequacy of systems of performance measurement of ambulance services in UK countries.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(IS... |
| Additional Information: | © 2009 Royal Statistical Society |
| Divisions: | Management Centre for Analysis of Risk & Regulation LSE Health |
| Subjects: | R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine |
| Date Deposited: | 05 Jan 2011 09:51 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Dec 2024 23:34 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/31137 |
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