Week 7 Competency Assignment: Benchmarking HIMA350

Subdomain VI.F Strategic and Organizational Management

Implement a departmental strategic plan i.e. benchmarking (Blooms 3)
Instructions:

Read the article provided: (attached)
Hughes, Gwen. “Using Benchmarking for Performance Improvement (AHIMA Practice Brief).” Journal of AHIMA 74, no.2 (2003): 64A-D.

Assume you are a hospital HIM Manager and you need to work toward part of the new strategic plan that indicates that your department will use benchmarking to improve coding production.
Based on the concepts of successful benchmarking described in the article, describe how you will embrace, adopt, and implement benchmarking for your coding production.
You may complete this assignment in a list or table type of format (rather than a research paper format) as long as you include thorough information and description of the steps you plan to take
You completed assignment should be 1-2 pages, not including the cover sheet and reference page.

ORDER CUSTOM, PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER

Benchmarking is the process of improving performance by continuously identifying and adapting outstanding practices.

Successful benchmarking results in improvements to quality and productivity as well as positive financial outcomes. For example, in a study conducted by the American Productivity and Quality Center in 1995, more than 30 organizations reported an average $76 million first-year payback from their most successful benchmarking project.

In addition, benchmarking promotes a “learning culture,” which is key to continuous long-term quality improvement and competitiveness. Successful benchmarking organizations are continually looking for new ideas. They adopt the most useful new ideas and meet and beat the best performance they can find.

Organizations with little experience in benchmarking often discover the best performance benchmark but stop short of discovering how the best performance was achieved. Additionally, they may start their benchmarking efforts by looking at external benchmarks while overlooking successful internal benchmarks that already exist. Further, inexperienced benchmarking organizations often fail to measure the project’s effects in terms of its costs and benefits.

Successful Benchmarking

The prospect of benchmarking can be overwhelming. It is important, therefore, to tackle benchmarking one step at a time. Benchmarking departments can add millions to a company’s bottom line when each becomes the best in just one category.

In order to benchmark successfully:

1. Select a process to benchmark. Know specifically what your department’s problems are and clearly define what you intend to study and accomplish. Choose relevant measurements.

2. Study performance-boosting best practices. Talk to colleagues inside your organization. Another department within your own facility may be using a process that your department can adapt. Next, talk to colleagues outside your organization. Participate in AHIMA’s Communities of Practice and appropriate listservs. Conduct a literature search and attend educational programs to learn about best practices. Do not confine your search to your own industry—there may be comparable processes in an entirely different industry from which you can learn. Develop a questionnaire to guide telephone interviews and on-site visits.

3. Judge the appropriateness and adapt best practices. Consider benchmarking with organizations that are roughly the same size as your own, because their best practices will be more likely to work in your organization. At

http://www.ahima.org/copyright
times, it makes sense to benchmark with companies that are less than the best but whose performance is better than your own organization’s. The very best organizations may be overwhelmed by requests for information or site visits and unable to provide you with the assistance you need.

4. Plan and implement best practices. Discuss your findings with your staff. Decide which practices can be adapted to your organization. With staff support, move forward, making the necessary proposals and budget requests, developing policies and procedures, conducting required training, and implementing new technologies.

5. Measure results and do a payback analysis. Assess the progress your organization has made by comparing baseline data with current performance. Document the costs incurred and the benefits that have resulted. Monitor quality to make sure improvements in performance are maintained. Periodically raise the bar or change the process for continuous improvement.

Information Sources

There are numerous sources of benchmarking information. They include:

� AHIMA: The Association periodically publishes surveys and best practices in the Journal. The Communities of Practice are available for identifying organizations with which to benchmark. Additionally, national conventions and audio seminars provide access to educational programs and exhibits in which best practices are showcased.

� Other associations: Associations such as the American Hospital Association (AHA) and Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) often provide member organizations with staffing and other information obtained from its membership. Some of this information may be routinely forwarded to your organization’s administration by these associations and often resides with the chief financial officer. Some associations also conduct surveys on particular topics on request. These organizations may also publish findings in their periodicals and on their Web sites.

� State, federal government, and accreditation organizations: Depending on the type of benchmark data sought, one might look to state or federal government or accreditation organizations. These organizations often publish reports in their publications or on their Web sites.