Benchmarking is one of the most effective strategies that organizations use to improve performance. The strategy is used by healthcare organizations to achieve the critical goals of nursing practices, which include patient satisfaction and high-quality medical service delivery ( Attree,1993) . Benchmarking helps healthcare organizations develop good reputations among the clients, build trust as well as help in attaining better organizational operations by pointing out the areas that need to be adjusted and as well as suggesting alternative ways in which the lagging areas can be improved. Healthcare organization leaders therefore, benefit much from benchmarking as it makes their work easier ( Kay, 2017) . Other healthcare workers also gain additional efficiency skills through benchmarking strategies that, in turn, help in developing their careers. Patients on the other side are the principal beneficiaries of benchmarking strategies as the outcome, such as better health service and reduced care cost of medication. Two major benchmarking taxonomies apply in the healthcare sector; vertical and horizontal. Each category of benchmarking has a unique contribution towards better healthcare service delivery.
UT Health East Texas is keen on becoming one of the most efficient healthcare institutions in the US and overseas. The hospital is performing well and is offering satisfactory healthcare services. Benchmarking can help the organization achieve its goal of becoming the best healthcare center in the world. The organization can use both taxonomies of benchmarking in improving how the care services are delivered to patients.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Vertical axis benchmarking
Vertical axis benchmarking in the healthcare environment involves determining and deciding on the best plans in a healthcare organization to better the outcome. Technology is one of the critical elements that contribute to the vertical aspect of benchmarking. Technology is currently one of the trends in healthcare delivery systems, and UT Health East Texas is not left out. The hospital is recognized for the extensive involvement of technology in administering healthcare services. Through benchmarking, the organization can come up with innovative technology-based healthcare services that will, in turn, see the hospital deliver a higher quality care service ( Hans, Kortbeek, Hulshof, Bakker, & Boucherie, 2012) . Also, involving technology might result in the discovery of faster and less costly ways of addressing health concerns. The management team will, in turn, be able to put to the table, a competitive advantage over other healthcare service schemes in the country.
Vertical axis benchmarking guides leaders in making strategic plans for an organization, developing a tactical plan for rare cases that arise in the healthcare environment, creating plans for operations in an organization as well as developing both offline and online operational plans ( Kay, 2017) . These, in turn, translate to helping the smooth running of the healthcare organization. For instance, online organizational planning serves the purpose of helping an organization improve on its patient monitoring capability, including rescheduling to create space for accommodating a patient that needs urgent handling without causing massive interruption on the systems ( Hans, Kortbeek, Hulshof, Bakker, & Boucherie, 2012) . Operational planning on the other side might help when it comes to deciding how the healthcare practitioners will be taking turns in taking hospital duties, the schedules for surgical operations. Besides, the tactical operation aspect helps the organization to give an alternative approach to an exceptional case.
Horizontal axis benchmarking
Horizontal axis benchmarking focuses on improving how various services that a healthcare organization offers. UT Health East Texas can impressively adjust on various services, including ambulatory, in/out-patient care, emergency care, surgeries, and home care services. In the horizontal axis benchmarking, the organization can adjust to the wait time for ambulatory and all the other services the facility offers. Unnecessary inconveniences of lateness and patients suffering from excessive pains when receiving care practices can be eliminated. The number of patients receiving services successfully can also be improved significantly. Benchmarking is also useful for ensuring that healthcare professionals observe all the ethical standards when delivering the service ( Hanbury, Müller, & Langs, 2017) . Through observing the guidelines set to put limits on which a doctor or nurse controls the healthcare delivery process, the facility is more likely to ensure that a patient receives a kind of examination that he or she approves. This is especially in the instances where a patient is to undergo a surgical process or critical inpatient care service, such as examination of private body parts.
UT Health East Texas uses benchmarking as a strategy for improving the quality of service to its clients. One of the areas of benchmarking most explored by the company is technology. The hospital has invested in the purchase of technological treatment devices as well as research to find technology-based approaches to addressing patients’ issues. These include accessing patients’ throat, eyes and internal tissues. Also, benchmarking on technological development for use in healthcare services has enabled the company to develop a proper online communication system for haring patients’ issues. In addition to technology, the hospital benchmarks on the standard ethical considerations for handling patients. This helps in delivering competent care as patients feel respected and are contented on the quality of care they receive. The third area of benchmarking is on technology. UT Health East Texas is continually advancing on the way staff is managed. There is a proper staff-shift for the employees, and they get adequate time to handle their duties.
| Without benchmarking | With benchmarking | |
| Ethical consideration score(scale 1-10) | 8 | 9.5 |
| Patient satisfaction score(scale 1-10) | 8.5 | 9.8 |
| Staff satisfaction score(scale 1-10) | 9 | 10 |
| Average surgery duration per patient | 60 minutes | 50 minutes |
| Total surgeries per day | 13 | 17 |
| Staff population | 200 | 228 |
| Patient wait time | 30 minute | 16 minutes |
| Emergency patient wait time | 15 minutes | 11 minutes |
References
Attree, M. (1993). An analysis of the concept “quality” as it relates to contemporary nursing care. International Journal of Nursing Studies , 30 (4), 355-369.
Hanbury, A., Müller, H., & Langs, G. (Eds.). (2017). Cloud-Based Benchmarking of Medical Image Analysis (Vol. 6). Springer International Publishing.
Hans, E. W., Kortbeek, N., Hulshof, P. J. H., Bakker, P. J. M., & Boucherie, R. J. (2012). Taxonomic classification of planning decisions in health care: a structured review of the state of the art in OR/MS. Health Syst , 1 , 129-75.
Kay, J. F. (2007). Health Care Benchmarking. The Hong Kong medical diary , 12 (2), 22-27. http://www.fmshk.org/database/articles/06mbdrflkay.pdf
