Patent ID: 8478607

Claim:
A method for managing and evaluating a service line of a hospital comprising the steps of: collecting data relevant to the service line of the hospital; awarding the service line of the hospital a raw score out of a possible score in each category of a plurality of categories based on the collected data, wherein awarding the raw score includes: awarding a raw score of zero to each category of the plurality of categories of the service line if one or more key elements of a care continuum for the category-are below a lower threshold established for the category; awarding a raw score of one to each category of the plurality of categories of the service line if one or more key elements of a care continuum for the category are between the lower threshold and an upper threshold established for the category; and awarding a raw score of two to each category of the plurality of categories of the service line if one or more key elements of a care continuum for the category are above the upper threshold established for the category; inputting the raw scores for each category of the plurality of categories into a computing device; calculating, with the computing device, a percentage score by dividing a sum of the raw scores for each category of the plurality of categories by a sum of the possible scores for the plurality of categories; associating the percentage score with a stage of maturation; and reporting the stage of maturation to the hospital.