Although you can, to some extent, measure your healthcare organization’s supply utilization expense practices with historical data (e.g., month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter, or year-over-year), this information doesn’t tell you how much better you can do on utilization. Only by benchmarking with your peers can you dramatically improve your supply utilization performance.
Identify New and Better Industry Best Practices
By definition, benchmarking is the search for industry best practices that lead to superior performance. For instance, if you benchmark your harmonic scalpels’ utilization and find that your cost per procedure is double that of your peers, you need to know what your peers are doing differently than you.
Historical vs. Peer Benchmarks
If your historical benchmarks for your oxisensors tell you that you have increased your utilization (not price) by 7% year-over-year, this fact should be investigated. However, if benchmarking with your peers shows that they are utilizing their oxisensors at half the velocity as your hospital, this could be a major strategic cost improvement for your hospital. Do you see how benchmarking far exceeds historical standards when searching for superior performance?
Your Goal: Obtaining a Leadership Position in Our Industry
The goal of your continuous utilization benchmarking (updated quarterly at a minimum) is to obtain a leadership cost and quality position in all supply expense categories. Meaning, your metrics should be better than any peer healthcare organization in our industry. Difficult, but not impossible to do.