Benchmarking in health services

Purpose:
– To investigate implementation of benchmarking (BM) in three hospital trusts by adapting receptive context of change model according to BM principles of EFQM business model.

Design/methodology/approach:
– Perceptions of managers, clinicians and finance personnel towards implementation of BM are compared. Both qualitative and quantitative data are collected in three hospitals and results are cross compared to analyse both organisational and professional perceptions.

Findings:
– The paper concludes that there are limits to the rapid or broad implementation of BM principles in health services. It argues that the patients and their expectations are not referred in BM. It also suggests that local implementation programmes should be used for BM health services.

Research limitations/implications:
– Future research could use data from other hospitals and apply same/similar framework in order to create knowledge representing the general attitude in hospitals and between professionals towards BM in health services.

Practical implications:
– Both academics and professionals working in the field of health services management might find the paper useful especially in managing different professional groups' attitude in managing change in large organisations.

Originality/value:
– The originality of the paper is the fact that it attempts to report on both professional and organisational approaches in implementation of BM. It also attempts to report on not only organisational factors but also individual and external factors of change for BM.