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SECTION 6. OPERATIONAL SUPPORT AREAS
PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
Fire suppression, prevention programs, and safety services need to be planned and managed
to achieve specific, agreed-upon results. Determining how well an organization or program is
doing requires that these goals be measurable and that they are measured against desired
results. This is the goal of performance measurement.
Simply defined, performance measurement is the ongoing monitoring and reporting of progress
toward pre-established goals. A performance measurement system captures data about
programs, activities, and processes, and displays data in standardized ways that help
communicate to service providers, customers, and other stakeholders how well the agency is
performing in key areas. Performance measurement provides an organization with tools to assess
performance and identify areas in need of improvement. In short,
what gets measured gets
done
.
Incident reporting is the primary medium through which department activities are recorded and
can subsequently be measured. Consistency, accuracy, and completeness in incident reporting
is critical to an effective performance measurement system. CPSM believes that improved
oversight is needed regarding the incident reporting processes currently utilized by CAL FIRE. Our
analysis found that nearly 750 of the incident reports reviewed were incomplete or were
inaccurate. The frequency of these types of reporting errors is indicative of the need for a more
robust and comprehensive internal quality assurance and review process.
Recommendation: CAL FIRE should improve the level of review of its incident reporting
to ensure the complete and accurate documentation of its response activities.
It is important that all personnel be fully trained in the incident reporting process and that clear
guidelines be established on when such reporting is required. In addition, CPSM recommends
that an assigned person(s) be responsible for the review of these reports for purposes of quality
control.
Performance measurement systems vary significantly among different types of public agencies
and programs. Some systems focus primarily on efficiency and productivity within work units,
whereas others are designed to monitor outcomes produced by major public programs. Still
others track the quality of services provided by an agency and the extent to which citizens are
satisfied with these services.
Within the fire service, performance measures tend to focus on inputs (the amount of money
and resources spent on a given program or activity, number of personnel, daily staffing levels,
etc.) and short-term outputs (the number of fires, average response times, etc.). One of the
goals of any performance measurement system should be to include efficiency and cost-
effectiveness indicators, as well as explanatory information on how these measures should be
interpreted. The various types of performance measures are shown in Table 6-1.