Pay for performance essentially is pay is based off of performance (Mathis, p. 377). Pay and incentives are structured to compensate performance variances among employees; while exceptional performers will be rewarded with greater pay and rewards than employees with acceptable level (Mathis, p.377). Unfortunately, if employee’s performance is below standards than the employee may not receive any compensation, be placed on a performance-improving plan or may even be fired. The idea is to encourage employees to do their best and they will be rewarded for their efforts.
While I was in the healthcare field, there was a movement on pay for performance nationwide being implemented. The idea is to give better overall healthcare outcomes, while obtaining financial incentives. The way it is measured is through documentation in medical records, it is critical to have everything documented.
I have mixed feeling about this because it would take at times, longer to document, while the patient did not get, as much time with the physician, in addition, just because the medical provider tries to get patients to change their behavior does not mean they actually will. For instance, when I was an office manager for a wound care clinic, many of our patients were their due to uncontrolled diabetes. We had to counsel patients to stop smoking, making healthier decisions and see a registered dietitian. I would estimate that less than 10 percent of our patients in a year actually made changes to a healthier life style. Depending on the diagnosis of the patient, the physician only had a certain time to treat the patient, in order to have favorable results that would actually pay for the treatment. In these instances, it is hard to base pay for performance, when the people are the variables.
On the other hand, it makes healthcare workers strive to heal a patient. The reason why it was