Benchmarking is a process that helps in the betterment of the processes involved. Respiratory care services are one such process that requires constant benchmarking to help improve services.  The most critical factor for benchmarking is establishing a compare group. Compare groups are essential in assisting identify data that can be used in either helping identify opportunities for improvement or for reducing the costs involved (Ford, 2006). However, determining the right compare group requires useful research looking at all vital data that will help in making comparisons. The comparison must also be made based on a similar type of respiratory care department. This article focuses on the benchmarks for adult respiratory cares services in general inpatient settings.

Benchmarking is useful in carrying out a comparison between a department’s performances with an external standard. This tool acts by creating several benefits to the users. The first crucial benefit of benchmarking is the ability to help identify areas which can assist in creating improvement within the department. It also helps in determining the performance levels of the staff involved. For example, in the general inpatient settings, the RC department is likely to depend on several teams that help run the department (Module 7). Benchmarking helps create competition platform for employees that help them reflect more on their work and their colleagues work.

The process of identifying benchmarks is a tedious and difficult one. Parameters rely mainly on using similar practice areas. In this case, a reference to be used should primarily be based on the RC department with similar properties. Sometimes, benchmarks can also be found on more prominent groups of practices that are applied in other parts of the country. The best way to baseline is always to rely on local clinics which have similar departments. The data used in the parameter must be identical for all the clinics used (Ford, 2006). The area of clinical performance to be assessed must be identified well before the real benchmarking process starts. These processes should also be driven by local community clinic associations that are focused on specific conditions. For example, for adult respiratory care services, the method must be based only on clinical institutions that rely on similar health conditions. Most respiratory care services in hospitals focus on different services (Module 7). There are those that may be solely focused on offering therapeutic services, and there are those that may be focused on bronchoscopy services only, rapid response teams among other services. There is also the need for research activities which should be done by the bio-medical team of the hospital.

One of the best tools to use in establishing compare groups is the AARC tool. It offers the users several options which they can use while creating the comparison groups. The AARC provides an online database which hospitals can use to benchmark their different departments based on benchmarks of similar departments from various health institutions. The RC manager uses this database to determine the institutions that they want to model their operations after. They quickly check how these hospitals operate their different departments, and they can be able to compare their performances with others (Ford, 2006). RC managers are also able to use the AARC to rank their hospitals in terms of their practices for every department they may be interested in ranking. They are also able to identify the necessary practices needed for them, to either improve their performance or reduce costs. The RC managers can view how other hospitals operate to minimize costs and enhance their productivity. They are also able to make comparisons with several other hospitals making it easier for them to choose the best models to use.

References

Ford, R. (2006). Benchmarking for success.

Module 7. Measuring and Benchmarking Clinical Performance

 
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