Benchmarking And How It Improves the Quality of Healthcare

Benchmarking has become a vital performance metric in the healthcare industry. It allows organizations to level up with the industry standards of healthcare practices, thereby improving the quality of service. According to a poll by MGMA, 84% of healthcare leaders have increased their operations using benchmarking. Nowadays, in the dynamic environment, where technological innovations transform healthcare rapidly, small organizations may fail to catch up to the latest upgradation. Moreover, you may also falter at strategic decision making due to insufficient data. With performance benchmarking you can identify the gaps and collect necessary data to take the quality of your patient care to the next level. Let's check how it can be beneficial for your healthcare center.

Types of Healthcare Benchmarking

Benchmarking involves evaluating the organization's performance with industry standards for increasing operational efficiency and patient satisfaction. Let’s check the most important types of hospital benchmarking -

• Internal Benchmarking in Healthcare

  This process refers to comparing performance metrics within other departments of the same hospital. Reviewing the process internally reveals the discrepancies that might happen internally. For example, if you compare the patient satisfaction score of emergency units with the surgical ones, you can evaluate your internal processes and practices.

• External Benchmarking in Healthcare

  When a healthcare center decides to evaluate the performance with the industry standards and their existing peers, they may opt to conduct external benchmarking. For instance, you can compare the readmission rates or the infection rates of your organizations with other hospitals at the state or national level.

The Benchmark Study Process

A benchmark study involves systematically comparing an organization's performance metrics against industry standards or best practices to identify areas of improvement. It aims to uncover performance gaps and opportunities for adopting effective strategies.

Steps in Internal Benchmarking

• Collect performance data from different departments or units within the organization.
• Compare these metrics to identify best practices and areas requiring improvement.
• Implement successful strategies from high-performing units across the organization.

Steps in External Benchmarking

• Identify relevant hospitals or industry standards for comparison.
• Collect relevant performance metrics from these external sources.
• Compare your hospital's data against the collected external data to identify gaps.
• Introduce best practices from top-performing institutions.

Tools and Techniques in Healthcare Benchmarking

Benchmarking tools in healthcare collect, analyze, and compare data. Experts then analyze the data to make informed decisions. Specific platforms and tools are -

• Electronic Health Records (EHR) Systems – Epic and Cerner
• Data Analytics Platforms – Tableau and SAS Analytics
• Survey Tools – Press Ganey and HCAHPS

Compiling and Utilizing Healthcare Benchmarking Reports

Benchmarking reports contain detailed performance metrics, comparative analysis data, best practice recommendations, and recommended strategies. They cover various aspects such as patient outcomes, effective functioning, financial performance, and patient satisfaction.

Report generation is done by collecting data from internal records, national databases, and industry reports. Advanced data analytics platforms analyze this data to identify trends, performance gaps, and benchmark comparisons. Once compiled, you can use these reports with the help of healthcare administrators and decision-makers to implement standard practices, improve systems, and monitor progress.

Conclusion

The benefits of benchmarking in healthcare are immense as it provides hospitals with a standard to strive for. Not only does it improve the patient satisfaction level, but it also drives the organization towards continuous success by raising its quality standards. Nowadays, the effectiveness of benchmarking is increasing due to constant innovation, thereby pushing organizations to achieve newer goals. Moreover, you will be able to provide more patient-centric care, which eventually adds to the enhanced quality of living.