title: Benchmarking child and adolescent mental health organizations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper describes aspects of the child and adolescent benchmarking forums that were part of the National Mental Health Benchmarking Project (NMHBP). These forums enabled participating child and adolescent mental health organizations to benchmark themselves against each other, with a view to understanding variability in performance against a range of key performance indicators (KPIs).
  
  
  METHODS
  Six child and adolescent mental health organizations took part in the NMHBP. Representatives from these organizations attended eight benchmarking forums at which they documented their performance against relevant KPIs. They also undertook two special projects designed to help them understand the variation in performance on given KPIs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was considerable inter-organization variability on many of the KPIs. Even within organizations, there was often substantial variability over time. The variability in indicator data raised many questions for participants. This challenged participants to better understand and describe their local processes, prompted them to collect additional data, and stimulated them to make organizational comparisons. These activities fed into a process of reflection about their performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Benchmarking has the potential to illuminate intra- and inter-organizational performance in the child and adolescent context.
authors.affiliation: Wundeela, Eastern Health CAMHS, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. timcoombs1@bigpond.com
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brann
authors.forename: Garry
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Coombs
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001315:Australia; D019985:Benchmarking / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003625:Data Collection; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007902:Length of Stay; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D010351:Patient Discharge; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards; D016896:Treatment Outcome