As the previous slides have shown, administrative data can help planners understand the health care needs of their residents and identify which hospital services are being used and by whom.

However, focusing on populations is limited in not considering the appropriateness of hospital performance in terms of the type and size of hospital, the types of cases, and the types of in-house physician specialties).

Thus, Stewart et al. (2000)¹⁰ developed four indicators of hospital performance, which allow institutions to be ranked on a variety of measures and compared fairly with others of similar type and function.

Unlike indicators used for urban or teaching hospitals, which may have limited applicability to rural and northern hospitals, this set of indicators is especially relevant for rural facilities.