March 9

Three Dangerous Myths About Benchmarking

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Benchmarking (or the search for best practices that lead to superior performance) can be a powerful tool for improvement in any area of your healthcare supply chain operations. Or, it can be used to hold back change that you or your department heads and managers would prefer not to deal with. 

To avoid this pitfall, here are three dangerous myths about benchmarking you need to avoid if you are to be successful in making change happen at your healthcare organization:

  1. We are different, so you can’t make a true comparison: This is the #1 complaint about benchmarking. Nonetheless, benchmarking is just like house appraising in that no home is exactly alike but an appraisal can be performed by an expert by adding and subtracting house features from current home sales until a comparable is built from available information that represents the ideal appraisal for the home being appraised.  

It’s the same with benchmarking. An experienced benchmarking practitioner can evaluate what is different about your hospital and then look for a comparable from a peer hospital department, section, or specialty unit. It could even mean benchmarking you against a teaching hospital department that is a comparable, even though you are a community hospital.  

The secret to the accuracy of any benchmark is the close collaboration, cooperation, and assistance between the department, unit, or section being benchmarked and the benchmarking expert. If these entities are willing to work together, the correctness of the benchmarks will be very exacting. So don’t believe the myth that you are different and therefore can’t be benchmarked.

  1. It could uncover weaknesses, so why take the risk: We know that there is trepidation when benchmarking is even mentioned in a conversation since it can show some of your weaknesses. Yet, that is the precise reason you want to benchmark; to uncover your weaknesses and correct them before someone else does, thus always being on top of your game.
  2. It is a one-time event or flavor of the month: It’s true, at too many healthcare organizations, benchmarking is a one-time event vs. continuous improvement. That is why we recommend quarterly and fiscal year to date benchmarking on all key areas of your supply chain operations. This way you are always aware of any changes in your performance and can quickly bring them back into control before you are told to do so.

Benchmarking, in many supply chain circles, has gotten a bad name because of poor benchmarking exercises in the past. If this has been your situation we would suggest you try again to establish continuous benchmarking in your supply chain operations. If you need some help (software, benchmarks, or training) in doing so, please contact us at bobpres@strategicva.com.


Tags

benchmark, benchmarking, healthcare, healthcare organization, healthcare supply chain, hospital, supply chain


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