Share
In part one of this series of blogs on benchmarking in healthcare, we’ve seen that data and metrics provide powerful insights that enable healthcare companies to navigate competitive landscapes. With knowledge comes power, as companies better understand and compare their operations and how customers behave. In this blog post (part two of the series), we speak to several of the participants in IFC’s benchmarking exercise to gain their insights on the value of sharing information with peers, the positive outcomes they’ve experienced, and the lessons they’ve learned.gain their insights on the value of sharing information with peers, the positive outcomes they’ve experienced, and the lessons they’ve learned.
Why join the healthcare benchmarking club?
Menka Shah of the Investment Funds for Health in Africa (IFHA), which invests in hospitals and other health-related companies, explained that health benchmarking allowed for valuable comparisons with international peer hospitals. This is significant because not all IFHA shareholders have healthcare backgrounds, and the data helped set expectations about facility performance.
Jose Luis Ramos, policy manager at the Honduras Medical Centre, one of the leading hospitals in the country, said: “We were able to collect, to review and to analyze information from different departments in the hospital that we have never compared before.” He added that data is critical to the long-term strategy of the hospital, especially as it expands across the country.
The real benefits of participating
In our experience, benchmarking in healthcare helps hospital leadership ask themselves the right questions: What should we do differently? Where should our business be in five years? What are the trends in our performance?
Menka Shah echoed this sentiment: “We compare our hospitals with the benchmarks to understand what we should expect from them,” adding with a smile, “It also helps to create some positive competition between management teams of the different facilities, as they know what to aim for.”
Mauricio Rodriguez Ola, CFO of Grupo Conclina in Ecuador, the largest healthcare group in the country, shared, “It was a surprise to see that we are a good performer.” He added., “This is a good opportunity to set goals that are aligned to our strategy, for new projects coming up and to reinforce that our doctors and physicians offer the best healthcare to our community.”
Integrating robust methodology
At the heart of IFC’s Healthcare Benchmarking program lies a comprehensive methodology designed to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the data collected. Recognizing the sensitive nature of healthcare data, we implement strict data protection and anonymization protocols. This ensures that all shared information maintains confidentiality while allowing for meaningful comparisons.
Our benchmarking initiative began with a pilot in 2021, focusing on collecting and examining data from healthcare companies across various regions. By 2023, the program was formally launched, encompassing a unique dataset that includes 50 companies, 162 healthcare facilities, and contributions from 32 countries. The data is categorized into four main areas: finance, operations, quality assurance, and clinical practice. This extensive dataset is arguably the largest healthcare benchmarking database for emerging markets to date.
Start small
Benchmarking is not a league table or a scoreboard—that approach can lead to indiscriminate actions to improve scores rather than focused improvement measures. It is key need to start small and set a few key performance indicators (KPIs) based on benchmarks in areas that are critical to your mission, with sufficient patient volumes and stable medical teams. Create a sense of excitement, nudge teams in the right direction, and celebrate successes often, even for intermediate goals.”
Menka Shah noted how they began: “We create detailed action plans with each entity and set a few improvement metrics using benchmarking data and start tracking those.”
Lessons learned
Healthcare benchmarking proves to be a valuable addition to healthcare organizations’ toolboxes. For the first time, company leaders can step back and compare their facilities’ performance with that of similar facilities worldwide. This allows them to understand why they are performing at their current level, recognize reasonable expectations for their facilities, and prioritize improvement activities that can be tracked with proven KPIs.
Performance improvements cannot be rushed. Healthcare providers need to keep at it: performance improvement is a journey, not a destination. But that journey needs to start now. There is no time like the present.
Source: blogs.worldbank.org
