Vital Signs

In 2020, MPERS implemented an oversight tool called vital signs. This tool was intended to improve the MPERS Board’s insight into System performance. As is the case with most organizations, there are numerous performance metrics to evaluate success and failure. MPERS is no exception. Historically, a very detailed approach to oversight was MPERS’ practice. This resulted in voluminous amounts of information, which was both distracting and overwhelming. To focus attention on the most important measurements, the Board of Trustees embraced the concept of identifying the vital signs for MPERS’ vital functions.

Much like the vital signs used to assess your personal health, MPERS’ vital signs provide an at-a-glance view of how the organization is performing. This narrowly focused list of vital signs tells the Board whether overall System performance matches its expectations. The list below reflects each vital function and its corresponding vital signs.

During development of the vital signs, an analysis was performed for each vital sign that developed a range of possible outcomes for each vital sign. Some of the outcomes are simply pass or fail while others provide a range of results that are either meeting expectations, not meeting expectations, or somewhere in between. These outcomes are illustrated using the stoplight color model; green is as expected or good, yellow is cautionary or of concern, and red is unexpected or bad. The outcome for each vital sign is color coded based on this simple and familiar model to quickly draw attention to areas not performing as expected, or alternatively, performance is as expected.

Vital signs are reported to the Board at least annually and are reviewed and assessed on that same schedule to be sure they remain sufficient so the Board can maintain effective and responsible oversight. Staff is developing a dashboard for reporting and maintaining a historical reference of these outcomes. The list below is a temporary dashboard until something more dynamic can be shared with stakeholders. This dashboard will be particularly useful in identifying outcomes that require review, especially when they either reoccur for a specific sign or there is downward experience for a particular vital sign. The ability to view trends (both upward and downward) will be useful to the Board and stakeholders.

Click on each vital sign to see an abbreviated explanation of the variance analysis and the expected outcome. The vital signs are reviewed annually by the external auditor to reinforce the validity of each outcome.