Benchmarking Article

The article I chose was “Implementation of multimodal infection control and hand hygiene strategies in acute-care hospitals in Greece: A cross-sectional benchmarking survey”. This article discusses how the infection and prevention department of Greece performed a benchmarking survey of 17 acute hospitals in Greece by using the World Health Organization Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework (Kritsotakis, Astrinaki, Messaritaki & Gikas, 2019). Their survey determined that the hospitals in Greece were not meeting the international standard set forth by the World Health Organization. The survey also identified the areas that need to be improved in order to meet their benchmark goal.

How Benchmarking Assist in Financial Decisions

Benchmarking is defined by Baker, Baker, and Dworkin (2018) as a continuous process of measuring products, services, and activities against the best levels of performance. Benchmarking can beneficial from a financial standpoint when you are comparing how much it cost you to provide a service compared to other facilities that have similar outcomes, or perhaps you may want to see what it would cost you to provide better services if another facility is providing better services. You may want to compare the efficiency of providing a service between facilities which can result in decreased staffing cost or decreased supplies used.

Potential Risk of Comparing Nonmatching Organizations

An academic medical center cannot be compared with a nonprofit primary care hospital located in the same town and built in the same year (Mulva & Dai, 2009). To be accountable for a comparison an organization must be able to understand its performance in the context of similar organizations, both internally and externally (Mulva & Dai). The academic medical center is receiving funds from many different avenues that are not available to a non-academic hospital. Additionally, the academic hospital will receive lots of cheap labor from residents and interns that allow for money to be reallocated or possibly allow them to provide the same patient more care than the non-academic hospital. If the non-academic hospital tried to compare their processes to the academic medical center, they would find themselves strapped for funding very quickly.

References

Baker, J. J., Baker, R. W., & Dworkin, N. R. (2018). Health care finance: Basic tools for nonfinancial managers (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.

Kritsotakis, E. I., Astrinaki, E., Messaritaki, A., & Gikas, A. (2019). Implementation of multimodal infection control and hand hygiene strategies in acute-care hospitals in Greece: A cross-sectional benchmarking survey. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INFECTION CONTROL, 46(10), 1097–1103. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.a…

JUST NEED A REPLY TO THIS DISCUSSION POST. 2 paragraphs, apa format, 2 references