Benchmarking
“If you want to keep what you have, you must constantly change.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Benchmarking evaluates
- which form of treatment is best suited to achieve the therapeutic goals (top-quality medicine)
- what resources are best suited to achieve top-quality economy
by
- identifying the best medical and economic quality
- reinforcing the process of added value
- setting priorities in selecting ways of improvement
- improving the performance expected by clients
- initiating changes in leaps and bounds instead of traditional cycles
Philosophy of constant improvment
Benchmarking is based on the philosophy of constant improvement.
The improvement process is:
- aim-orientated
- externally orientated
- standard-orientated
- information-intensive
- an incentive to act
Difference between Benchmarking and Quality Management
Benchmarking identifies the best performances and results, while quality management focusses on deficits. Therefore quality management is quite unpopular among physicians and healthcare professionals.
Benchmarking offers the chance to “learn from the best” by benefiting from both methods and respective instruments.
The actual purpose of benchmarking is to initiate the process of improvement by altering functions, procedures or strategies.
Requirements
What are the requirements for successful benchmarking?
- Indicators
- Monitoring systems that communicate with care documentation systems
- Rapid feed-back of the assessment of the indicators
- Capacities to analyse and implement internal procedures
- Connections to other practices or hospitals
- Willingness to document data
- Willingness to discuss on an interdisciplinary basis
- Willingness to reflect constantly
- Willingness to work as a team
- Reasons for implementation
Reasons for implementation
Physicians and healthcare professionals have the responsibility to improve their performance continuously and to achieve the highest level of ability.
Healthcare management needs to be adapted because of increasing technical and administrative complexity of modern health care.
