Benchmarking, a management approach for implementing best practices at the best cost, is a recent concept in the healthcare system. Benchmarking is usually considered to be a process of seeking out and implementing best practices at best cost. This pursuit of performance is based on collaboration among several organizations. This basic principle of benchmarking consists of identifying a point of comparison, called the benchmark, against which everything else can be compare.
Introduced by the Xerox Company in an effort to reduce its production costs, benchmarking methods spread throughout the industrial sector in the 1980s and underwent several changes that upon analysis are highly instructive. For more than 10 years now, the demand for performance has become a major issue for the healthcare system. This is due to three factors:
Benchmarking also encompasses:
- The imperative to control healthcare costs
- The need to structure management of risk & quality care
- The need to satisfy patient’s expectations
Benchmarking also encompasses:
- Regularly comparing indicators (structure, activities, processes, and outcomes) against best practitioners
- Identifying differences in outcomes through inter-organization visits
- Seeking out new approaches in order to make improvements that will have the greatest impact on outcomes
- Monitoring indicators
Our 12 stage methodology consists of:
1. Select subject
2. Define process
3. Identify potential partners
4. Identify data sources
5. Collect data and select partners
6. Determine the gap
7. Establish process differences
8. Target future performance
9. Communicate
10. Adjust goal
11. Implement
12. Review and recalibrate
1. Select subject
2. Define process
3. Identify potential partners
4. Identify data sources
5. Collect data and select partners
6. Determine the gap
7. Establish process differences
8. Target future performance
9. Communicate
10. Adjust goal
11. Implement
12. Review and recalibrate
