Benchmarking Basics: A Resource Guide for Healthcare Managers

Spiral-bound Book + companion CD-ROM
ISBN 1578398657
9781578398652
HCPro
September 2006
(click the button below for the very best currently available price for this important resource)

Your organization’s performance is being compared, right now, to other facilities across town and across the country. More hospital performance data is readily available than ever before, and benchmarking is implicitly required by some JCAHO standards and CMS measures. Payers and agencies are calling for more transparency in quality improvement data.

This book and CD set explains how to implement benchmarking programs that use valid data to answer a variety of questions, make accurate comparisons, and measure a hospital’s overall performance, both internally and against facilities nationwide. You will also examine when not to benchmark, and how to avoid commonly made mistakes that can affect results. The need for benchmarking is clearly growing. You or your hospital staff are being asked to run new or improved benchmarking projects. This resource helps you gain clarity by guiding you to find answers to such fundamental questions as:

What data should we gather?
When should we collect it?
What do we do with it once we’ve collected it?

Electronic tools will help you get everyone on the same page. Benchmarking Basics features a free companion CD-ROM that includes an electronic appendix of benchmark databases, Web sites, and resources you can access for additional information.

The CD-ROM also includes a customizable presentation tool that explains what benchmarking can do for your organization so that you can introduce concepts to your staff. This easy-to-use handbook and CD-ROM also features:

ready-to-use procedures, forms, checklists - all customizable and ready-to-print from the included CD-ROM
explanations of common benchmarking terms and concepts
step-by-step instructions for getting started
examples for finding and collecting applicable data
case studies
presentation tools
extensive resource lists tips for accurately comparing benchmarking data.

Gathering meaningful data is vital - particularly now, in the era of pay-for-performance. Benchmarking Basics: A Resource Guide for Healthcare Managers takes all levels of healthcare managers through the benchmarking process, step-by-step. In every chapter of the book, you'll find a concise summary of topics, as well as tips on potential trouble spots and what pitfalls to avoid. You can also use the expert guidance in Benchmarking Basics to:

decide what type of benchmarking is appropriate to your organization, and when
select the right benchmarking resources and make the best use of them to meet JCAHO standards for performance improvement, or to meet other needs
understand what your data shows and how to explain it to hospital staff, leaders, and regulators

Effective benchmarking does more than ensure regulatory compliance - it can also be a very useful tool for marketing and public relations, comparing performance against national averages, identifying strategic and operational trouble spots, and gauging internal improvement.

The author of this book, Cynthia Barnard, MBA, MSJS, CPHQ, is also the author of Performance Improvement Basics and coauthor of Performance Improvement: Winning Strategies, which won the David L. Stumph Award for Excellence in Publication from the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ). Ms. Barnard is the Director of Quality Strategies at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL.

With more than 18 years of experience, HCPro, Inc. is a leading provider of integrated information, education, training, and consulting products and services in the vital areas of healthcare regulation and compliance. The company's mission is to meet the specialized informational, advisory, and educational needs of the healthcare industry. As an acknowledged industry authority in healthcare regulation and compliance, HCPro focuses on providing its clients assistance and expertise in the areas of accreditation, medical staff affairs, credentialing, privileging, medical record management, regulatory compliance, nursing, quality/patient safety, infection control, and workplace safety.

(information from the publisher)

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