Episode 16: How Much Do You Bench? An Overview on External Benchmarking with Oscar Santalo and Joanna Longueira

Definitions

1. Benchmarking – Finding and implementing the best practices.  Health-system administrators are turning to benchmark vendors for help in improving operational performance
2. Efficiency – Avoiding waste or maximizing possible outputs from a set of resource inputs
3. Productivity – defined as the efficient use of resources, labor, capital, land, materials, energy, information, in the production of various goods and services.

Background

1. Goal is to find and implement the best practices of peer organizations
2. Vendors without expertise in pharmacy practice often sell benchmarking metrics that ultimately result in the downsizing of pharmacy departments and services
3. Goal is to find and implement the best practices of peer organizations
4. Vendors without expertise in pharmacy practice often sell benchmarking metrics that ultimately result in the downsizing of pharmacy departments and services

Major End Points

Summary

1. External benchmarking helps seeing where your pharmacy department stands with other departments
2. Many limitations such as:
   1. No gold standard or evidence-based literature
   2. Variability to which pharmacy departments provide distributive and clinical services
   3. Unable to incorporate outpatient services
   4. Vendors do not easily identify peer groups or reveal components of their formula

Reference

 Steve S. Rough, Michael McDaniel, James R. Rinehart, Effective use of workload and productivity monitoring tools in health-system pharmacy, part 1, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, Volume 67, Issue 4, 15 February 2010, Pages 300–311, https://doi.org/10.2146/ajhp090217.p1

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