Benchmarking the Urology Practice英文文献资料.docVIP

HindawiPublishingCorporation AdvancesinUrology Volume2008,ArticleID729204,3pages doi:10.1155/2008/729204 ReviewArticle BenchmarkingtheUrologyPractice PaulA.Brower OrangeCountyUrologyAssociatesInc.,25200LaPazRoad,Suite200,LagunaHills,CA92653,USA CorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedtoPaulA.Brower,lagunapb@ Received16June2008;Accepted29October2008 RecommendedbyChristopherGonzalez Themedicalpracticetodayisrelentlesslychallengedbymedicalprogress,byrisingcosts,andbythemountingpressuresofthe managedcareenvironment.Itshouldbetheapproachofeverymedicalpracticemanagerandpractitionertoseekoutandmeasure uptothebeststandardssoastooptimizepatientcareandbusinessoutcomes.Thisrequirestheresolutepursuitofgoodmodels, broughtaboutbythefosteringofkeycollaborativerelationshipsthatarebothpracticalandstrategic.Integraltothisprocess isbenchmarking:thewaybywhichinformationisobtainedfrombothinternalandexternalsourcestodetermineandsetthe standardsforperformance.Benchmarkingisaninvaluablestrategictool. Copyright?2008PaulA.Brower.ThisisanopenaccessarticledistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense, whichpermitsunrestricteduse,distribution,andreproductioninanymedium,providedtheoriginalworkisproperlycited. 1. INTRODUCTION four years ago. OCUA was formed after a merger of two preexisting groups approximately four years ago. We begangatheringinternalbenchmarkingdataasameansof measuringthesuccessofthemerger.Wequicklyrealizedthe value of the multiple benchmarks that we began to track, and have gradually increased the number of variables that we examine. Our ongoing objective is to understand our capabilitiesformaximizingpro?twhiledealingwithquality care and time management issues. Thus, our approach is nottolookatthingsinabroadorgeneralwaybuttoseek out a careful explanation for each indicator, so as to gain knowledgeandprovideforactionableresults.Thisrequires aprocessthatexpandsincrementally,onestepatatime. There are two forms of benchmarking: internal and external,withtheformeralwaysthenecessary