Offering bonus programs that reward employee performance sounds like a great idea, right? Not in this case.

Britain’s Imperial College Healthcare Trust is proposing a program that would pay doctors a cash bonus every time they saved a patient’s life in surgery.

Also on the rewards agenda: bonuses for every time a patient survives the operating table or leaves the hospital without an infection.

Before rolling out the plan hospital-wide, the trust is using a pilot program with a single surgical team, limited to types of surgeries. They’ve refused to say exactly what types of surgeries will be performance-evaluated, but did say they were chosen because they “had very clearly defined indicators that made them suitable for testing.”

So far, mortality, infection and cost-effectiveness are the only benchmarks made public by the trust, but other factors may be taken into account.

“It’s about rewarding excellence,” the trust added.

Aside from general shock and awe displayed by many patrons, the hospital’s Patients Association has another serious concern — if monetary reward is linked to performance, there’s the danger that high-risk or complicated surgeries will be passed up.

Have you ever been evaluated or rewarded on some very strange criteria? (Hopefully, when lives were not at stake?) Share your stories in the comments section below.

Tags: Bonus programs, Hospitals, Incentives, Performance evaluation, Rewards, Surgery