While significant progress has been made in improving cancer survival rates—as evidenced by a drop in cancer deaths in the U.S.—the number of new cases continues to increase. Experts say far too many ...

Many hospitals and health systems use the same performance management tool for a very long time, trusting that its capabilities adequately meet their organizational needs. And that’s just what some of ...

Accreditation surveyors for ambulatory surgery centers are now paying more attention to benchmarking and quality improvement projects. They want to see projects tackling vital issues for the center ...

Mission-support functions are integral to an agency’s operations. These administrative or back-office functions—acquisition, financial management, human capital, information technology and real ...

Publicly comparing similar activities can be a powerful driver for change. That was the premise behind the employee satisfaction surveys across the government in the early 2000s. Initially, these ...

Benchmarking has been prevalent in other industries since the 1970s but is a newer concept in healthcare. Comparing data against one’s peers to assess organizational performance seems simple enough, ...

Seven gastroenterologists from across the United States share how they are using benchmarking to improve colonoscopy quality. Ask a Gastroenterologist is a weekly series of questions posed to ...

Businesses often need to evaluate where they are in order to decide where they want to go, and sometimes the best way to do that is by comparing themselves to a standard. “In today’s world of sharing ...

In part one of this series we discussed how most organizations fall midway on the quality management continuum for their organizational structure, competence assurance and procedural adherence. Though ...