Quality Applications and Benchmarking

This week, I expected to learn more about using benchmarks in health care.  Benchmarks are interesting in the way that they get utilized.  I want to learn more about the way that they get utilized effectively and the benefits and limitations of benchmarking performance.  I would also like to learn more about the sources of benchmarking and what the best source is if there is just one. 

I have come to find that there are a number of ways to actually do benchmarking, and within health care, there are even more and other types of benchmarking that gets done as well.  There are pros and cons of benchmarking that gets done and the type of benchmarking that is available and used.  Each industry and company will need to find the best type of benchmarking for their individual situation and also there are individuals that may have preferences to their own mode of thinking.  Sometimes it is best to do just internal or just external benchmarking, but you can also do a variation of using benchmarks from both for the best results.  Again, the best method is the one that fits best with your specific company. 

The discussion was a good way to look at the types of benchmarks that get used within a specific system of health care (VTE usage and the different roles among the different providers).   I also looked at the different types of balanced scorecards that are used in hospitals and evaluate the type that I like the best.  It is good to see the way that I view things and the best way that I am able to see information, so that I am able to give my opinion if called upon to do so.  I really liked the “Critical Thinking” exercise from this week and the way that we looked at a specific problem and how we could use benchmarks to solve this issue and compare it to current practices and benchmarks. 

This information is very important to me as a newer grad in nursing.  I am always looking for ways to move forward within nursing and to help the company that I am working for to find things that help to advance not only my company but also the role of nursing.  I am always looking for ways to move up in a company or structure and so having this as information for better quality will greatly influence me in this end. 

I am a bit of a nerd in a lot of aspects.  I love looking at information and data and thinking about the best way to present it and to showcase it.  I also like spreadsheets and coming up with ways to better improve not only myself, but also the company for which I am working.  I really like the way that the material was presented to be learned, but also the material itself.