Healthcare professionals recognize the power of patient feedback. Many even consider this data to be the lifeline of their organization. In an age where buyer power is in the hands of the patient, staying ahead means constantly improving provider performance and patient outcomes. When patients notice these improvements, they are more likely to leave positive feedback, which, over time, enhances an organization’s reputation.
Collecting patient satisfaction survey responses and benchmarking these results against industry standards helps providers identify areas in need of improvement, implement changes, and ultimately enhance the patient experience. Let’s take a closer look at the types of benchmarking, the benefits of benchmarking and the practical steps to implement benchmarking.
Practical Applications of the Four Types of Benchmarking
In healthcare, there are four distinct types of benchmarking, each offering its own unique set of benefits. Whether analyzing internal data or seeking external insights, benchmarking helps leadership teams make informed decisions for improving processes and practices.
Type 1: Internal Benchmarking
Internal data helps an organization measure against itself, looking at departments in comparison to one other within a single hospital or looking at the same department among hospitals within a health system. For example, an organization might measure patient satisfaction scores for waiting room times at their northeast location compared to their southeast location.
Type 2: Competitive Benchmarking
External data helps leaders determine how their organization performs against competitors on a local, regional, and national level. For instance, an orthopedic practice in Texas can determine how its scheduling experience compares to other orthopedic practices in the state.
Type 3: Functional Benchmarking
Functional benchmarking compares processes and methods within identical business functions where the entities being compared are in different industries. For example, a cardiology practice may benchmark its waiting room time, scheduling experience, and check-in experience data against that of an orthopedic practice.
Type 4: Generic Benchmarking
Generic benchmarking compares how core processes or functions are practiced in a similar way, without regard to the industry, to gain a new perspective. For example, a doctor’s office with a low check-in score might seek inspiration from a high-ranking one to learn how to increase those scores.
Key Benefits of Benchmarking
By comparing benchmarking metrics against industry standards, healthcare organizations can streamline workflows and enhance patient outcomes. The following are specific examples of such benefits.
Benefit #1: Operational efficiency
Incorporating benchmarks into your healthcare organization’s operations is a key driver of operational efficiency. By identifying best practices and comparing them against industry standards, you can pinpoint inefficiencies and streamline processes, ultimately reducing waste and cutting costs.
Whether it’s optimizing scheduling protocols or improving resource allocation, benchmarking provides a data-driven foundation for making informed decisions across the organization.
Benefit #2: Increased patient satisfaction
Benchmarking also plays a crucial role in increasing patient satisfaction. By consistently measuring patient feedback and comparing it with industry benchmarks, healthcare organizations can uncover specific areas of improvement. Whether it’s reducing wait times, enhancing communication, or personalizing care, these insights enable providers to put targeted strategies that directly address patient concerns.
As satisfaction scores improve, the ripple effect can be seen in increased patient loyalty, better online reviews, and a stronger reputation within the community. There is a clear correlation between consistently surveying patients and improved patient experience scores. While this doesn’t always result in a significant improvement in the overall rating, it does lead to a steadier, more predictable pattern over time, as illustrated in the image below.
This ongoing feedback loop helps hospitals and health systems to not only meet but exceed patient expectations, leading to higher satisfaction scores and more positive reviews over time.
Benefit #3: Promote healthy competition among providers
Comparing top performers not only gives providers full transparency into their performance but also encourages healthy competition within the organization. By sharing benchmarking scores, organizations can pinpoint areas for improvement and reinforce the practices that contribute to high ratings and high-quality care.
How to Create Effective Benchmarking Metrics
By establishing clear, measurable standards, organizations can easily track progress, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions. The following examples outline key steps to develop benchmarking metrics, ensuring your organization remains competitive and dynamic.
Step 1: Segmentation
Divide the organization into manageable segments, such as departments, units, or locations. For instance, a hospital might segment its operations by cardiology, oncology, emergency, and outpatient services. Each segment can be further divided into units, like inpatient care and outpatient care within the cardiology department.
Step 2: Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Pinpoint the most important metrics for each segment. For the cardiology department, KPIs might include patient satisfaction scores, average length of stay, readmission rates, and the number of successful procedures. For the emergency department, KPIs could include wait times, readmission rates, and staff response times.
Step 3: Set SMART Goals
Set goals for each segment that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. To illustrate, the cardiology department might set a goal to reduce readmission rates by 10% over the next six months by implementing a new patient follow-up protocol. This goal is specific (reduce readmission rates), measurable (10% reduction), achievable (with the new protocol), relevant (improves patient outcomes), and time-bound (six months).
Step 4: Analyze and Adjust
Continue to monitor performance against the benchmarks, and adjust goals accordingly to keep them relevant and challenging. For example, if the cardiology department sees a significant improvement in readmission rates after three months, they might adjust their goal to further reduce readmissions during the period being benchmarked. Alternatively, if they find the initial goal too ambitious, they might extend the timeline to achieve a more gradual improvement.
Putting it All Together
Data is the lifeline of any healthcare organization. Without it, your quality of care suffers and falls behind others. Consistent collection and analysis of patient feedback allows your organization to deepen your understanding of your performance through benchmarking. By segmenting your organization, defining KPIs, setting SMART goals, and continuously analyzing and adjusting, you can create a framework set up for success.
About Evan Steele
Evan Steele is the Founder and CEO of rater8, a healthcare reputation management provider. Evan holds a personal passion for delivering phenomenal customer service, ergonomic software design, and the effective implementation of technology to improve patient care.
