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OBJECTIVE: Explain why benchmarking is a valued management tool and what ratios or percentages are most useful in benchmarking laboratory operations. Review the major benchmarking subscription products currently available to laboratory managers in the United States.
DATA SOURCES: Current literature and Internet sites.
CONCLUSIONS: The process of comparing laboratory operations over time with peer groups using statistical tools and benchmarking can provide valuable insights into areas of operation that need improvement.
ABBREVIATIONS: CAP = College of American Pathologists; CLIA = Clinical Laboratory Improvement amendments; CLMA = Clinical Laboratory Management Association; HBSI = Health Business Systems International; JCAHO = joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
INDEX TERMS: Benchmarking; laboratory operations.
Clin Lab Sci 2000;13(3):187
Focus Continuing Education Credit: see pages 190 to 191 for learning objectives, test questions, and application form.
LEARNING OBIECTIVES:
1. Identify the major laboratory benchmarking products available to laboratory managers in the United States.
2. Describe the purpose of the 'participant profile' in each benchmarking product.
3. Define the 'unit of service' used by each of the benchmarking systems.
4. Describe the primary reasons for using benchmarking ratios.
5. Differentiate the features of the benchmarking products available to laboratory managers in the United States.
6. Identify key laboratory functions that are monitored in the benchmarking process.
7. Discuss the role of the laboratory manager in utilizing benchmarking data.
While healthcare in general has been criticized for being a latecomer in using tools to benchmark `best practices', laboratories have had the opportunity to subscribe to benchmarking products for more than three decades. Benchmarking is a method of comparing performance against a standard. This is an easy concept for clinical laboratory scientists to embrace at the analytic level and one they find valuable at the management level. Benchmarking tools were developed in Canadian laboratories in 1960 through the efforts of the Canadian Association of Pathologists. In cooperation with that group the College ofAmerican Pathologists (CAP) offered an ever-evolving tool known as the CAP Workload Recording Method from 1969 until 1992. Subscriptions to the Workload Recording Method allowed pathologists and lab managers to compare their facility's productivity and staffing against a mathematical standard related to the total number of tests performed: reportable, quality control, and standards. Subscribers were also able...