Hospital Benchmarking Paper

I chose to research how hospitals benchmark. I came across an interesting article which discussed how hospitals benchmark themselves. The article began by stating a majority of hospitals will compare themselves to the national average. It discussed how using national averages does not provide sufficient information on how to improve. The best use would be to know what exact rates are at the best hospitals. Some benchmarking that hospitals may use is comparing their medical error rates to a hospital that has excelled in the prevention of errors (Sower). Another benchmarking opportunity would be comparing the number of patients that had bedsores during their stay in a hospital with the lowest incident rate (Sower). By benchmarking, you will be