In this era of health care reform, hospitals must address the operational (clinical and financial) implications of reforming their care delivery system and determine whether their current operating model will sustain their mission. What the future will ultimately look like is yet to be determined. To be sure, operating models to support health care reform may differ, but the fundamentals such as cost, quality, utilization, and, to some extent, reimbursement remain at the core of each model as integration and alignment within hospitals and care delivery system, are re-defined.
To develop and deliver a quality driven, lower-cost model of care delivery, hospitals need to make strong commitments to real change. Success depends on their ability to fundamentally redesign processes in order to become more efficient and improve clinical outcomes. Operating more efficiently while improving clinical outcomes will have a positive impact on patient satisfaction that will in turn lead to satisfied physicians, non-physician practitioners, and support staff, leading to positive results in financial performance. While there are many tools that can be used to support the process change, benchmarking gives hospitals an effective way to measure and compare their performance against other organizations and themselves to support improvement initiatives.
This article provides information on leveraging benchmarking as a key tool for improving operational performance. Benchmarking can provide guidance to hospitals to help prioritize time and financial resources on initiatives to ensure operating performance meets clinical and financial targets and objectives.
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Length: 4 pages (PDF 176 kB)