Health indicators as drivers for improvement in the management of health services

Abstract

Effective management of healthcare services requires continuous improvements due to limited resources and increasing demand. Health indicators provide measurable information about system performance, guiding improvements and informed decisions. This study aims to examine how health indicators act as drivers for improvement in the management of health services. This is an integrative literature review, carried out between the months of August and September 2023, in the SciELO, VHL and Google Scholar databases. A total of 236 articles were found, after screening with the criteria defined by the research, only 10 studies were selected to compose the final sample. Health indicators cover a variety of areas, including mortality, birth rate, morbidity, immunization and access to health care, allowing assessment of a population's health status and areas of concern. It is concluded that health indicators offer crucial information on various aspects of health service management, allowing improvements, efficient allocation of resources, monitoring progress and guiding health policies, in addition to enabling managers to make decisions based on evidence.