Use of Performance Dashboards in Health Care Project Management: a Case of an International Health Development Organization in Kenya

Abstract

In this paper we document the use of dashboards in health care project management in an international health non-governmental organization. All projects at the organization monitor output performance on specific indicators against set targets and report these as project outputs performance report every month. In addition, projects prepare quality improvement report, compliance report and financial report. The four reports are then used to generate the monthly integrated performance monitoring and management dashboard which is shared with all staff and used by project managers and programme directors to review projects performance in the 4 parameters of measure and then used to provide appropriate technical support. We conducted a client satisfaction survey among staff to assess their levels of satisfaction with the dashboard and it came out that staff consider the dashboard as a “must have” monthly project management tool as it results in timely measurement of projects’ financial performance, programmatic performance, quality of service performance and compliance performance at a glance without the need to go through detailed reports. Programme directors and project managers use the dashboard to quickly identify hotspots, detect outliers in indicators of measure in a project and use this to deeply analyse possible causes of poor performance in projects for targeted technical assistance.