title: Performance benchmarking. Part 1: What it is & how to use it.
abstract: Benchmarking provides data necessary to evaluate an organization against norms for various administrative and clinical purposes. There are many different types of statistical comparisons used to benchmark one organization against others, or against itself over time. Careful selection of benchmarking strategies can give an organization confidence in the results, thereby maximizing the usefulness of the data for decision making and performance improvement.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Services Research, Division of Health Care Policy and Research, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine, USA. pete.shaughnessy@uchsc.edu
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Shaughnessy
authors.forename: Angela Arnold
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Richard
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000592:standards; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States