The bottom line is outcome-based assessment

The message being delivered to hospitals through the Joint Commission's Agenda for Change is that today's bottom line is not based on a listing of activities done, but rather, on what outcomes, what impact on community problems, what benefits these activities have achieved. It is important to see that outcome-based evaluation methods, once adopted, do not degenerate into habitual production of largely ignored morbidity and mortality rates. Materiel managers must contribute a business-oriented understanding of costing and entrepreneurship while embracing a clinical-oriented goal of caring.